Untitled
by Gynednyssamm
Summary: Self insert where I get stuck in a FF world after a near death experience. After getting stuck in the worst possible place I think that is the worst of my problems, but something much worse sits in the background waiting for the right moment. Ch. 95 up! 96 coming soon.
1. Otherworld

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch.1 Otherworld

_**Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker? -Garth Nix**_

_(Music playing in the background)_

_This is 94.5 the buzz! Coming up next is…._

Smack! I finally hit the snooze button after reaching blindly for it.

"Stupid alarm!" I say rolling over. I hear my roommate stir, but she does not get up. _We really should get up…class starts at eight. If we are late, we'll be kicked out of the class._

_9 minutes later…._

_(Alarm goes off again)_

_The weather is up next! Man says. The weather for Houston, TX is looking good…slight chance of r-._

_"Ok, Sarah! Time to get up!" She just groans._

7:12 a.m.

Time to make sure she gets up. Turn off fan, and then turn on light and attempt to blind her. Today this fails and I must resort to a more drastic approach. "If you don't get up we'll be late again! I for one do not want to have to retake this stupid class!" She gets up and faster than I have ever seen she gets ready.

Guess that did the trick. She is up, Jen _(the other roommate)_ is ready and so am I. We are now in the living room waiting for Sarah to finish putting in her contacts. _What color is it this month? Blue…last month they were red._ Sarah is mumbling profanities under her breath and she just cannot seem to find her homework for today. Things could not suck more this morning! Finally, we leave and make it to class just in time. We are late, but so is the teacher.

We do this just about every day. It is the normal routine for three average college students. Of course we all attend a college that none of us can really afford. The Art Institute. People around town think only rich people go there, but honestly that is not true. There are plenty of poor people there too. We are all about the same age, but I happen to be the youngest.

I am Lilia Arne, I am nineteen years old and I am average looking. I wear glasses, but I do not really need them that bad. I have recently broken them though. Everyone here is taller than I am; they have found their purpose in life, and seem to have figured out how to live in this horrible town. Houston does have its perks and all, but coming from the country is different.

Sarah is the same age as me, but older by a few months. She is pretty, but she does not think so. I figured that since she took so long to get ready then she would be in the bathroom putting on makeup, but she does not. In fact, none of us do, but Sarah has hang-ups over her image. Saying she's gained too much, or something else is wrong with her.

Jen…well she is the oldest. Twenty-one almost twenty-two and she is glad to be a senior. She is about the same as us. Not much taller, ok looking I guess, wears a lot of black. She is the only one of us with a boyfriend. Thinks he's "the one". Have yet to figure her out. She talks a lot, but most of it seems to be ranting.

This class we've got today is a wasted four hours of our lives. Right now, the teacher is acting as if he were better than anyone else. He is very full of himself because of his past accomplishments. Not that we do not acknowledge them, but it does not really give him the right to be the way he is. He is not the only one who has done work for some big names.

12:00 p.m.

I am finished with classes today, but both of my roommates have one left. Which means if I want a ride home I have to wait four more hours. I decide to get something to eat before wasting time pretending I am doing homework in the lab. Jen and her boyfriend are there. They are all over each other. _They are so gross…no one seems to care, but I have lost my appetite._ I think to myself as I throw half a sandwich away. _I think I will go home early today. I don't feel so good. Maybe I will finally finish unpacking._ Sarah and I just moved into the apartment with Jen. We hated our old one and finally decided to move. The real reason I like this apartment so much is the fact that Jen has a Wii! _I'm such a nerd._

We are all gamers. Jen more than the both of us. I'd say it is probably the reason we get along so well. That and we all have a moment or two in our pasts that helps us all understand one another. Things that we have bonded over in telling our stories. I've been through a few roommates since moving here to go to school, but these two are the ones that I like the most. They actually get it. We can actually talk to each other. Although, I am an introvert, so it was hard for me at first. But I think now I am starting to open up a bit. But it does tend to go back and forth.

After getting home I rest for a bit and then start unpacking a few more boxes. Mostly it's just books and drawings. I finish one box and the phone rings. I finish putting up a drawing I did years ago of Sephiroth, and answer.

_'Hello. May I speak to Lilia Arne?'_

"Speaking." _Wow, it's actually a phone call for me. This never happens._

* * *

The day before...

In a small town there are few people, but lots of talk. When something big happens it spreads like a wildfire. There are only a few things that have happened in this small town worthy of note and all of them quite mysterious. This one is no different. For some reason the police were crowded around a small house in a small neighborhood where not much happens. None of them enjoyed the scene before them where they were spending much of their time waiting.

"There's so much blood...who would do this?" A detective said.

They were processing the scene and waiting for the ME to arrive. All of them were trying not to disturb anything, but they were also getting tired of looking at it. "Whoever did this had to have a reason."

"This was very personal. I only hope what happens next won't be worse." They talked amongst themselves doing what they could. "Looks like the neighbors are starting to come around. We should talk to them. They might know something. Who called it in?"

"Um...lets see." He flipped through the papers before answering. "The grandmother did. The report states that she lives right next door." He said looking at the house frowning.

"No one has come out of there. Are they home?"

"Actually, they're victims as well. It looks like the next house over was hit as well. Maybe the first one on the way here?" He said wondering.

"There's the ME. Now we can really get the show on the road." He sighed as he walked up to him.

* * *

_'I'm inspector Lloyd from the Van Zandt county police department. I'm afraid I have some bad news.' Bad News? 'I am afraid several of your family members have been murdered and we….' Murdered? _I drop the phone. I may not like my family and I may even hate a few of them, but this is not something I expected to happen. _Why? Who did this? _I come to my senses and pick up the phone. He must have quickly realized that I had stopped listening.

"I'm sorry…this is just…." I stumble with the words. It is hard to think when you hear that kind of bad news. He starts babbling about the killer and asking if I know any of them. I say no to some and yes to some, but I do not think I can help. I do not even live there.

_'I understand that this is hard for you, but we believe the killer is still on the loose and might possibly target you.' Me? _Who…it only takes a second for me to realize that there was a small chance of it. Probably one of my mom's crazy old boyfriends. _Boy, did she know how to pick em. _I was thinking.

_'Miss….' _I hear choking on the other end. _What the hell's going on over there?_

"L-Lloyd?" More all I heard was laughing and a totally different voice.

_'Hehehe! Just kidding. I killed him hours ago. Just wanted to see if you could figure me out, but you gotta love this voice altering stuff.' _He said laughing more sounding quite proud of himself. I frowned and my hand tightened on the phone_. Hehehehe! Hello, Lilia…it's been a while hasn't it.' _That voice sounds familiar, but I don't remember his name. _'Poor guy. He should have stayed out of this. Don't worry I'll be seeing you real soon. See I'm not satisfied yet. Got your address from your mom. Just thought I'd give you a chance to run. What will you do? Hahahaha!' _He hangs up the phone and all I can do is cry.

I am not sad or afraid though. That is what I had expected to feel, but I just felt angry. I hang up the phone and lean against the wall sliding to the floor. I cannot stop crying and the more I think about it the angrier I get. I hear the door handle giggle and Jen and her boyfriend enter. They see me in the hallway to my room sitting on the floor still trying to process what just happened.

"Are you ok?" _Why do people ask that when they can obviously see that I'm not ok right now?_ I am too numb to answer her. So much crap is going through my head and I cannot make sense of it all. I feel like I am just getting more and more pissed off by the second. I may explode soon and the angrier I feel the more I cry. They are pestering me about what happened and I gradually tell them. They comment on how horrible it is and tell me to go to bed. One problem…my body is not responding and they end up helping me to my bed.

"You just need to compose yourself. We'll call the police and see if they can do anything?"

I just sit there and stare at the ceiling thinking this must be some kind of bad joke? Part of me really hoped for that. If it was I could go to sleep and just ignore it. Part of me also knew that if I didn't take this seriously something bad could happen. I was still having trouble putting a name and face together to go with his voice. I just could not remember him.

I stare at the picture of Sephiroth I put by my bed trying to clear my thoughts. If I were half as strong as he was, I would not have to worry about anything. I mean no one here could even hope to have that. I am sure that a psycho killer is coming to get me and I will be dead by the time I wake up tomorrow if I don't do something, but what? It will only take about four hours for him to get here. No idea what the roommates are doing to help me if they are doing anything at all. I wonder if they've even told the police yet. I hear Sarah come home and I just hope to god that she does not come in the room! I need to recover from this quick. I found myself feeling tired and ended up falling asleep, which in itself is unusual for me.

When I wake up I realize that I have done nothing to prepare for him. I don't even know how long I've been sleeping. _Is he here yet? Will they be able to do anything?_ I bolted up and looked around. It was dark in the room and only the clock was visible. After seeing the time it had not been that long, about an hour at most.

It was strangely quiet until I suddenly felt something hit me hard. Next I feel something heavy on top of me. Someone is laughing and I hear someone scream. _Sarah?_ _What is going on? _My eyes have now had some time to adjust to the dark and some light is creeping in from the doorway. I can clearly see a large man sitting on top of me and a small glint of something in his hand. _Is that a knife? __He's here already?! Did they call the police? They would've come by now. _I scream and grab his arms trying to fight back, but I know it is useless. I am a weakling after all. I know how to scare people, but not someone who has lost his mind.

"I'm kind of disappointed. I thought I might see you running outside to get away, but to find this? Did you think this was a joke? I even gave you time." He said with a questioning look. As soon as he said it I realized that he must have been outside when he called. It also made me think about the police. Did they come and did he kill them too?

"What did you do to them?!" I shouted as we struggled.

"Oh, you're little friends? Or the policeman outside?"

"You kill them?" I was starting to feel scared now. He was a lot stronger, but I was not about to give up yet. I was crying and my vision was starting to blur from it.

"Not all of them…and no one is coming to save you." We were still struggling and I was trying so hard to get the knife away, but he was slowly inching it closer to me. For a brief moment I felt strange. Like I couldn't breathe and I couldn't see. I felt my arms getting tired, but at the same time I did not want to give up. The air suddenly feels different. There is wind and it is hotter than it has ever gotten in Texas. The ground had also changed and I felt myself sink into it slightly. I don't stop fighting, but he seems to be stunned for a second as if he just noticed the change, and I manage to get the knife away from him. _I do not care about what is going on he has to die!_

"What the hell is going on here?" He is looking around at something and I take this opportunity to stab him in the back. He howls in pain, but quickly pulls it out and jams it into my shoulder. I scream and we struggle, but I start to feel tired again. _No! I don't want this! What do I do?! _

The next few moments were like a blur. I was suddenly fighting him with more strength than I just had and now I felt more determined. Our struggle attracts what I take as a wolf, and I let it have him and run hoping that I will make it to safety. I know I am outside and that I am in a desert. It is hard to run in sand and the heat could kill you. I pass out after I think half an hour of jogging thinking that if I stop he or the animal might catch up to me.

* * *

-_You have to wake up. You'll die out there. –_

_-What? Who are you? –_

_-... –_

* * *

I wake up and the sun instantly blinds me. I realize I am outside and what happened before was not a dream. After my eyes adjust, I sit up and look around. I am not in my room anymore. I am not in Houston anymore…I may not be on earth anymore for all I know. _Ok maybe aliens are real…I think I still need to see one to believe that though._ "Where the hell am I?" I shout out. I know no one can hear me, but frustration does that to me. I just feel the need to shout. As if to answer my question, I spot a structure that looks familiar. "I don't believe this! That's…it can't be…Gold Saucer?"

My mind is now freaking out trying to figure out the what, when, who, where, and why of this. I draw a blank and lay in the sand with my eyes closed thinking. _What now? Why am I even here? Is it just a dream? _These questions go through my head and I cannot possibly come up with anything that makes any sense. At the same time I pinch myself just to make sure I'm really awake. _Guess this isn't a dream...or maybe just a very realistic one._

All I'm really concerned about is where I am and how I'm going to find help. Gold Saucer is a prison and the desert is pretty big and there is no escape that I know of. I'm sure there might be one, but doubtful I will be finding it.

_Ok…Gold Saucer is south of me…so north of that…I should find Corel. Wonderful…a trek through the desert is just what I need._ _This sucks already._ _I really don't want to go to a prison._ I can be resourceful when I need to be, but I decide to wait though. Trying to go anywhere during the day might kill me. I wait until nightfall and then head towards Corel. After about four or five days I realize I haven't gotten very far or at least it seems that way. _On the game, this desert does not look this huge!_ I black out before I even realize it.

Upon waking up, I find that I am no longer outside. I can only assume that someone found me and took me to either the prison or Corel. _I will be thanking them when my voice comes back...maybe. _My first attempts to speak were painful. _Probably all that sand and heat. For right now, they will have to live with nods. _I look out the window and it looks like Corel. I sigh in relief that it isn't the prison.

"You're awake! We thought you might be dead." A nice and cheery woman says from the doorway smiling at me. Unfortunately, I make eye contact and she takes that as an "I'm ok" look and proceeds to drag me into her 'kitchen' and shoves me in a chair. "Sit here and I'll get you something to eat." She goes on and on talking obliviously not caring if I respond; while making some foul smelling soup she says is good for me.

The house is quaint and looks like it could fit a small family of three in it. Looks better than I remember seeing the homes look in the game. The walls are grey and the table and chairs are metal. She is still talking to me. _Doesn't she know I am not listening?_ The soup is done and she puts it in front of me. _I refuse to eat whatever this is! Smells horrible!_ She forces me to eat it and this only makes me feel one hundred times worse than before. "I'm hurt ya know!" I choke out in between mouthfuls of the soup she is shoving down my throat. She stops and looks at me funny laughing slightly.

"What you don't like it?" I violently shake my head no! "Hm. You should eat it though. You'll feel better a lot faster, and it's good for your throat." The last words are more than enough to force me to eat it. I was hungry after all and I can leave faster! Maybe then I will figure out what is going on and how to get home. I find myself smiling and she is looking at me strangely. She keeps talking and I eat not really listening.

"You're very lucky we were passing by. We made a delivery to the prison and found you passed out when we came back. You were pretty far into the desert. What were you thinking? You could've died out there."

I coughed before answering her. "Had to do something." I said before coughing again. This one was bad enough to hurt my chest. "Stay in one place...and a monster might get you. And I'm not fond of prisons."

"I see. So you were running from..." She paused hearing the door.

The door opens and a little girl and a dog come in. The dog runs over to me and knocks me onto the floor in his excitement. "Stop that! Bad dog! Honey, take him outside please!" I get back in the chair and finish the soup. I feel even worse than before thanks to the dog. I glare at her. _Liar! __Should I really feel this bad?_ According to her, I have been here for a whole week and I feel like all that stuff happened yesterday.

In my head it was like this:

1. Trek through the desert

2. No food for four or five days…actually more than that

3. Hardly any sleep unless you count me passing out a few times (and the week I was out)

4. Random monsters in the desert I barely got away from

5. Random monsters I did not get away from (strangely enough never tried to eat me)

6. No water!

7. There's also the fact that a psycho tried to kill me and did kill some of my family

In reality only some of that was fully true. I've never been through anything this traumatic before so it's only natural to exaggerate. I did manage to find a little food and thanks to watching tons of animal planet/survival shows I knew how to find water. The monsters were a totally different story. For the most part they seemed to ignore me, but every once in a while I found myself trying to hide under the sand till I thought it was gone and hoping that it did not want me that badly.

Yeah I think I probably should feel this bad and I would probably feel bad for a while longer. One thing I have noticed is that I have things now. A backpack full of stuff that I know cannot be mine. Cheery lady, whose name I've already forgotten, says it is.

There are: 99 potions, 99 ethers (do I really need those?), 5 phoenix down (only five?), 10 elixirs (cool), almost maxed out money! I can buy anything! No weapons (figures! I'd just hurt myself anyway). There is an armlet and some materia (fire, cure and a summons-Shiva!). I had more items on the game so it did make me wonder. Why did I have this and where did it come from. However, I was not about to let this go to waste. Although, I did have to have her go through the money with me. She did not even question me about it. She just smiled and answered everything.

I have also noticed that Corel seems livelier than in the game. The trains are going and people are walking around doing business. In the game things do not look half this good from what I remembered. It was a bit strange hearing and seeing all of the things I had never imagined to be real. The sound of the train going by as it transported coal. And the town was bustling with business and a little noisy outside.

This is helpful. I know that I am here before the events of the game. Either that or things will not happen the same way. I am not even going to make a guess. I did take a walk around to see what a lively Corel looks like. The people seem nice. They wave and say "Hi", but I cannot really answer them. My voice is still recovering. I did notice the lack of a mirror in cheery lady's house. I had to look into a window to see how I looked. I wasn't too happy with what I saw.

I am now shorter than before, my hair is longer, and I look like a twelve year old. Wonderful news for a nineteen year old college student who has been through hell. This is just the icing on the cake. So I get stuck in another world and for some inexplicable reason I am a twelve year old girl and I have to wonder why I look the way I do now.

How or why did this happen? Was there even a reason? Or is this just something that happens in this kind of situation. The reasoning behind it all eluded me. I could not seem to come up with an explanation for where I was, why I was here, and why I had changed so much. I just decided that I would have to find out later. Sitting around like this was not going to find the answer for me. After a bit of exploring I went back to cheery lady's house.

She's in her living room and I decide to find out what exactly has been going on in the world. She hesitates giving me a weird look. Shinra and Wutai are at war, but it has only been going on for about five or six years. Mostly they are dealing in weapons right now and have started Mako production. They are already here in this town taking away from mining coal. The rebels have been causing trouble for Shinra and the town. They are actually trying to help the town, but they are actually hurting it more.

Shinra has become very aggressive towards the other towns and other kinds of energy. She thinks they just want to be the number one in everything. I decide that is enough. It is a lot of information for me when I do not feel very good.

I am still not feeling well so I think taking a nap will help. The next day Cheery lady, or Anna as I finally got her name down was gone most of the day taking her daughter with her. That left just me and their dog. I just did this and that trying to pass the time. They finally returned and informed me that as soon as I was well enough we were all going to Gold Saucer to "celebrate"….

* * *

One week later….

I am better now and as promised by Anna, we are now headed to Gold Saucer. I liked coming here on the game. I got good at most of the games and I have my doubts that I will actually be that good here in real life. Many noisy, excited little kids are with us on the tram and they are literally making it rock side to side. Their mothers are apologizing to everyone while attempting to make them stay still. So far none of them has done that.

We arrive and I have to take a moment to look at everything. It is impressive on the game, but when you actually get to see it, it is awesome! Everything shines and in the corner theirs cleaning equipment with a few people standing there talking in a tight circle. They must keep this place really clean.

Once we are admitted in there is the familiar room with the different places painted on the floor. The Anna is pointing towards a tunnel stating Wonder Square. _Woot! The arcade!_ _Since I have an insane amount of gil I can play everything! I do not know if she knows that._ I also bought the gold ticket when she was not looking. I plan to come back…or I will just give it to someone if I find that I cannot go back for whatever reason. I only bought it because I do not want to spend the time gaining GP to get it. 300 GP is a lot! I never really took the time to get it that way on the game either. Also, I still have an insane amount of gil….

She steers her daughter to the games she wants her to play and tells me to play whatever until they're ready to go somewhere else. The first thing I notice is that there is a guy drooling over the Mog House game. He is whining to a friend that he cannot beat it…_how can you not figure it out_. I hear him say he will give away a lot of GP if someone wins…or shows/tells him how to do it. I think I will just be better and show him up for the GP. I play and it goes by so slowly…this game is just too easy. Mog is done and he has impressed the girl and the guy is standing behind me looking in awe as I totally win.

"How did you know what to do? I've never figured it out!" _How many times have you played this game!_

"Here!" He gives me 50GP. "This is for showing me how to do it!" _I did not show you. _He boots me off the game and starts playing. _Is this the same guy from the game or just a relative? Maybe a relative? He is even more in love with this game than that guy._

I move on to the 3D Battler. I am expecting to suck at it. I know how to get past the first two guys, but can I apply it to now? I manage to beat the first one, but the second one beats me. I am a little disappointed that I could not do it and decided that for the hell of it I am going to try the fortuneteller. Put in 50gil and go. It moves, the eyes glow, paper comes out.

You have a bleak future ahead

That does not sound good. I rip it to shreds and throw it away. No one else needs to see it. "Ok. I am not going to play super dunk. I hate basketball…that and I suck at it." There is a line to play the wonder catchers and Anna is playing that. I think she played Mog House to, but like most people lost because they are not that observant.

A few hours later and many defeats on the 3D Battler we leave Wonder Square. Anna is sighing a lot. It might be because her daughter is annoying the hell out of her. She wants to see the Chocobos. _Hell…so do I. I LOVE them to death!_

She decided to spoil our fun and we went to Event Square. I wasn't too disappointed since I loved going here on the game. Being there now made me smile thinking of the different things I had done on the game. It was very nostalgic for me. It also made me a little sad because I was thinking of home too. _I wonder what's going on there?_

They picked someone out of the audience. Me and some geeky guy and we got to choose what happened. I got my way and he kissed the dragon. Everyone laughed and he just glared at me. I may as well be entertained while I am here. Anna did not think it was funny. Then we went to Chocobo Square to watch the races. _Finally! They are so cute! I want to ride one. If I had one then I would race one…if it were good._ Anna just shakes her head at us as we totally freak out with excitement. I decide to try to pick the winner and hey I actually win a few times! Of course, I'm not betting so I am not actually winning anything. Anna wants to go and I really want to go to Speed Square to try the roller coaster. She objects saying that it is too violent for her daughter to ride. "I could ride it myself?" She ruins my happiness by grabbing my arm and dragging me towards the exit so we can go. I wine, but I am still a little hurt so it only hurts me more.

I am sad that I did not get to ride the roller coaster and we are all tired. We decide to just go to sleep. For some reason the words from the fortuneteller were echoing in my dream. Maybe it is just my overactive imagination trying to do what it does best. Make something that could happen seem ten times worse than it is. Like when one of my step-dads burnt something. I had a dream two weeks before that he burnt down the house instead. Now is one of those times.

I am still in this town and it is dark. Storm clouds cover the city and threaten to rain down on us. The fortuneteller's words echo in the air catching on the breeze swirling around me. All I can imagine is the worst possibilities for myself. I see all sorts of monsters around me and I hear the wind howling and all sorts of disconcerting sounds all around me. There are people there too. A strange piercing laugh makes me wince and I look for the source, but it seems to emanate from all around me.

I turn around and a tall hunched man is standing there looking down at me. All I could really see of him were his eyes and the grin on his face. I backed away not really sure what was about to happen. He reached out and grabbed my arms and I squirmed trying to get out of his grip. It was stronger than I had anticipated. And then his voice when he spoke made me freeze. The light changed and now I could see a long white coat he was wearing and the details in his face came out. After a moment or two of staring at him, I realized who it was. He was not someone I wanted to meet right now.

I did still have my doubts that all of this was really happening, but even so. This is something I would not wish upon my enemy, much less myself. Hojo stood there talking to me. He grinned, laughed, and held on tightly to my arms. I pulled back, but could not free myself. I felt the fear welling up.

-_Wake up! –_

My dream is interrupted and I am very thankful. Hojo coming to do experiments on me would be the worst thing that could happen. Everything goes black and the voice keeps insisting that I wake up, but for some reason it is hard. Guess I was tired.

**Author: **Garth Nix reference from Sabriel, Lireal, and I don't remember if it's in the last one or not.

This is the first fanfic I started so please understand that I was in a totally different place then and it definitely shows in my writing style. Until I have finished editing the beginning is just not that great and I know it. If you find it interesting enough to continue then please do. Trust me it gets a lot better and as I edit things will slowly improve as I add/alter things to flow better. I am almost finished writing it so that means I'll have more time to edit the story. Flamers are welcome too! I love reading them. Makes me laugh every time.

R&R please. Title will change once the story is finished & edits won't show up like new chapters so a reread may be warranted later on, but I would give that time since I don't update very often anymore.


	2. Nightmares do come true

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 2 Nightmares do come true

I finally wake up from my nightmares and the little girl is standing next to my bed shaking me and telling me to hurry and wake up. There are strange noises coming from the living room. Sounds like someone is fighting. The cheery lady has obviously barricaded the brat and I in this room and is attempting to keep someone out. She yells at them, they threaten her and it does not sound like a good thing. Someone tells her to move out of the way and it sounds like she is shoved to the floor. The handle jiggles, but they cannot open it. Good thing little girl locked the door.

I quickly get the backpack, put the armlet on, and quickly put the materia in it. I have decided that staying is not worth whatever awaits on the other side of that door. I opened the window and hope that I can get out before whoever gets in. I completely ignore the little girl as she tries to stop me saying that I am deserting them after all they have done for me. What have you done? Give me a headache that is what.

I hit the ground and groan, but I manage to get up just as I hear them bust down the door. Adrenaline and fear makes me run and find a nice spot to hide until they go away. This is somewhat hard since I am so confused right now. It is chaotic in the town and people are running everywhere. It is also raining. How fitting. My heart feels like it is going to beat out of my chest. I finally find a hiding spot and from there I can clearly see what is going on in the town.

It gets very quiet and people in black suits are at every door. Turks? Some stupid, angry people are retaliating, but not doing a very good job of it. A woman in red is standing by a house talking to who seems to be the leader of the Turks. I cannot hear them even though they are very close by me because of the train going by. The Turks gather around her and she gives them some orders they reluctantly obey. They gather everyone in town together near my hiding place and they do not look happy.

Cheery lady and daughter are standing right in front of me. She's beat up and the girl is crying. The dog is missing. I almost feel bad enough to cry, but that would not help anyone. Woman in red (whose name I am ignoring) stands before everyone and of course gives them an ultimatum.

"As you know Shinra controls this town. We know that you are hiding rebels in this town and are aiding them in their endeavors to bring down Shinra Company." She laughs out the last part of it as if it were a joke. "If you do not cooperate with us then we'll just have to start killing you one by one." I grimace. Why is she here? Doesn't she just dish out weapons for Shinra? Why would she be sent out with the Turks? Is it just because she is a bitch?

Everyone starts talking amongst themselves. Some of them mention the Cheery lady, and me but they all seem to agree on not cooperating. I think it will get them killed. They all agree and get very quiet as their answer to her. (Insert angry look that could kill) They are so dead! She looks at one of the Turks and he aims his gun at a villager and kills him. Everyone looks at him shocked.

They back away a few inches, but still do not say a word. Scarlet glares and snaps her fingers. All guns are raised at them and are about to fire when one of the Turks falls down dead. Everyone looks at him in disbelief. There is a dagger in his back and a young man is running away with the Turks gun. The Turks and Scarlet turn their attention away from the townsfolk and chase after the mystery man. Now is the time the dog decides to turn up and he will not stop sniffing around my hiding place.

"Mommy! Mommy! She's ok!" The little girl spots me and makes sure that everyone knows where I am. I know she is just glad I am ok, but is it really a good idea for them to find me. Cheery lady comes over and drags me out into the open hugging me.

"I'm so glad that you're ok!" She squeezes me and it hurts a lot. She lets go and goes on telling me how worried she was and how she thought they might have gotten me and possibly killed me. By now, everyone else has noticed me and is looking at me with mixed expressions. Some seem worried and some look angry. "I think this is all just a misunderstanding. We don't harbor rebels!"

"Why don't we just hand her over so they'll go away? For all we know she might be a rebel taking advantage of your hospitality!" Some big burly guy stepped forward and was pointing his finger at us. What is his problem?

"That's not possible! She's been asleep the whole time!" Cheery lady looks mad now! He does not look intimidated. He slaps her and grabs my arm nearly breaking it. "Stop!" Yay! She is defending me! OW! He yanks me forward as Scarlet and the Turks return empty handed. Scarlet looks happy, but there is a frown stuck on her face until she sees us.

"Well…what is going on here?" Scarlet says sounding cocky. She tries to intimidate the burly man. I am on the ground just realizing that I have been holding my breath. I cough and try to stand up. "I don't recall seeing you here before." She looks down at me and raises an eyebrow.

"She was hiding!" I glare at the burly man and give him an 'I will never forgive you' look. Scarlet looks very happy and instantly goes into flirt mode. She makes the burly guy blush and he hands me right over to one of the Turks without even thinking. He is too busy staring at her boobs.

"Well…we'll just have to take her with us then…unless you have something to say in your defense?" I do not say anything. I decided not to say anything. Even if I did say something, she would twist it around to fit her wishes. I hate her so much! "Nothing to say huh? Well then we'll just have to assume that you've been a bad girl." She smiles evilly and looks at the Turk. He sighs and takes me away to their truck. He ties me up and throws me inside. "Now once we've taken care of the rebels we'll figure out what to do with her. She could be useful somehow." I hear Scarlet say outside. I hate her even more now. I am probably going to lose all of my stuff!

It gets quiet and the only thing I hear are the people outside being sent back to their homes. They have strict instructions from Scarlet to go inside, lock the doors and windows if possible and stay there until we leave. I have the feeling that not everyone will adhere to her words. Someone will be stupid enough to go out and they will be shot…or tied up like me. Well, at least I will not be alone then.

A Turk gets in the back with me and sits near the doors. He is just there to watch me and make sure that I do not do anything stupid…like try and escape. I would not dare do that with him there. He is huge! He is frowning and I can tell that he does not like being here at all, but he seems to be less agitated then the rest of them. Maybe it is because Scarlet is outside with them.

An hour later gunfire breaks out around the truck and I cower in the corner. The Turk comes over to "protect" me. When the gunfire subsides we hear Scarlet outside shouting orders. The rebels had attacked and now they were going to go after them and either kill them or capture them. Scarlet stayed behind sitting in the truck griping about everything. The Turk in the back with me went back to his original spot and continued to keep watch and frown.

After several hours of waiting we are once again attacked and now that most of the Turks are out in the field looking for the rebels we are a bit unprotected. Scarlet starts cursing and yelling orders trying to get all of the Turks back together. This time the rebels have an advantage and seem to be winning from my standpoint. Of course I am mostly going by how many times Scarlet yells out a curse word. The worst part is that I am stuck in the back of the truck while bullets are being shot right at it. Some of them have come in and ricocheted around causing me to scream and freak out; the Turk only twitched.

Finally the Turks were making progress. They had killed two and captured one who was put in the back of the truck with me. He fought them relentlessly and had to be incapacitated. That mostly involved a punch to the face and a nice throw into the truck where he hit the cab next to me. While the doors were open I could see what was going on outside a bit more clearly.

The Turks were not happy about the situation. They looked very serious and annoyed. One house was on fire and the family either was dead or had gotten out. I could not tell one way or the other. The rain was worse and visibility was low, maybe more than five feet around you. I could see Scarlet clearly though. That red dress was easy to spot and I am sure that the rebels could see her just fine. The doors slammed shut after they threw in the rebel and the gunfire started up again. Scarlet screamed and then started shouting. I was definitely right. They could see her.

After another hour went by three more rebels joined me in the truck. They were much more compliant than the first one. He has not woken up yet. One of the rebels was a young woman who looked in her early twenties or possibly younger. She stared at me for a long time. The two men stared (glared) at the Turk there to watch us. I tried not to make eye contact with any of them. Later the doors opened again and the rain had finally stopped. Two more rebels joined us in there and we could see that the rest of them were lying dead in a pile close by. All of them glared towards their comrades showing both sadness for their deaths and hatred for the ones that had killed them.

"You bastards! Some of them have children!" The woman shouted at Scarlet mostly. Scarlet came over hearing this and merely sneered at her.

"They should have thought of that themselves before killing some of our men." She looked angry, but her voice was calm. She put on her poker face and strutted over to the Turks to give further orders, which she shouted to them. We were all glad to hear that they were not going to do anything to the town, but I know they were thinking about it. We were not going to leave until tomorrow. Scarlet wanted to rest for the night (what is left of it). They had locked us in the truck with the one Turk and I think they had at least two outside just in case.

The rebels were huddled together most of the night and so far none of them had said a word to me. I am not sure if they actually went to sleep, but I did. I felt exhausted. Running around scared and then facing Scarlet and being arrested was enough excitement for one day. I did not dream and I did not sleep for long. The sun was shining brightly through the windows at the back of the truck when I woke up. The rebels had not really moved from their spot and the Turk was still there. We were not moving so I suspect that we are still in Corel.

Outside scarlet was barking more orders and I think she was making a phone call. The rebels were talking amongst themselves and glancing at me every occasionally. They glanced at the Turk a lot more. _I hope they are not planning to do something stupid. They will just be killed._ There are times when I hate being right. The woman came over to me and sat down.

"We're planning on escaping. You can come too." She whispered to me. "We know we are leaving in an hour because Scarlet talks so loud. We'll have a better chance of getting away once the truck is moving." She leaned in closer to me as she spoke noticing that the Turk was watching us. _At least you have sort of thought this through. _"It's your decision."

She left it at that and went back to her comrades. I do not understand why they are being so nice to me. Maybe they just feel bad for what happened at Corel. They were right about us leaving in an hour. Scarlet had made a call to the president giving him an update on the rebels.

"There were about ten of them. They attacked us while we were questioning the villagers. We took care of them. Killed four of them and captured six. We also found something else. A child. She is not from here. Apparently she has been here for three weeks and was found in the desert by a family. She was out for a week…." Scarlet sighed a few times, said many, "yes sirs", and then hung up the phone. "We're heading to Costa del Sol in one hour! Get ready!"


	3. Enter the Madman

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 3 Enter the Madman

I have noticed that they are placing our things in a box labeled "dangerous objects". They had taken all of my things away from me. I may never see them again. Makes me want to cry. I will never have items that good ever again! We hear them load another truck with some stuff from Corel and then it is time to go.

Within the hour later we left for Costa del Sol and the rebels held true to their word. They positioned themselves around the Turk three on either side and waited. I guess that they are just waiting for the right moment. They are holding the ropes around them so they appear to be tied up and then they drop them and all but one attack.

He was outnumbered but he did manage to fight off two of them before the other one opened the door and they tossed him out. They cheered and then gaped at the truck of Turks behind us. I almost wanted to laugh. Every Turk that could see us had his or her gun out and pointed right at them. The Turk they tossed was lucky that he was not run over. The trucks stopped and a very angry Scarlet appeared with all of the Turks.

"Fools! I should kill you for that, but I can think of a far worse punishment!" She snaps her fingers and the Turks come to retie them and this time they make sure they will not get out. I have not moved the entire time knowing that one way or another their little plan would fail. Scarlet notices and smiles. "You should follow her example. She knows better than to make a half-baked attempt to escape us." With that they closed the doors and we continued on our way.

I attempt to sleep and I realized that I am getting many stares. None of us has said a word to each other since before the escape attempt. I do not feel the need to anyway, but they are giving me weird looks. We hear the truck screech to a halt. Guess we are here already. The Turks surround the truck and for a few minutes there is only silence. It is not long after that we hear Scarlet talking animatedly to someone. My mind goes nuts trying to figure out who it might be. The doors open and we all flinch as the light floods in. Scarlet says something and I hear a laugh that makes my skin crawl.

"The rebels here tried to escape from us on the way here." Scarlet said. "The child didn't move though. She must be smarter than them." Scarlet went on explaining what she had said to the president and what he had told her to do. "He thought that instead of killing them all they could be useful. I'm sure you can use them all somehow. "

"So let me see the child." He says after a minute of looking us all over. Scarlet sends in a Turk to drag me out into the open. I cover my eyes and my arm is quickly jerked down. I look up at them and blink wildly trying to adjust to the bright sun. He laughs again and I shiver. "Not bad! They all look splendid. They'll make wonderful test subjects!" _OMG! It is HIM! _If I could move, I would smack you! The rebels groan and I hear one of them curse.

"Well, Hojo, I'm so glad that you're pleased." The Turk throws me back into the truck where I move as close to that cab to get away from him and the light. They slam the doors shut. "Careful! Don't damage her." Hojo shouts and the Turk half-heartedly apologizes. "Take them to Midgar and I'll meet you there." We do not leave right away since the boat is not leaving today. We arrived too late. It is only a few hours after nightfall and we have to wait until in the morning.

They get a few hotel rooms and shove us all in one room to contain us. There are two Turk guards to watch us. They look ready to kill us at any moment. I sit in the corner nearest the door. The rebels are taking up all of the beds and glare at the two Turks guarding the door. The ones closest to me are staring at me and I feel uneasy. One of them smiles and pats the spot on the bed next to him. I shake my head. He looks away and so do the rest of them. They get up and move to the other side of the room. Why did they do that?

"You can have that bed." I look up and the same one is smiling and pointing at the bed. "You don't deserve to be treated like garbage. That's all you get from Shinra." A shot rings out and everyone looks at the hole in the wall beside his head. He faints and I look over at the Turks. Looks like neither of them have moved. One of them is smirking though. I guess after that maybe I should stay put. The Turk who is smirking looks at me and motions towards the bed. "It's ok. Go ahead and take it." Now I do not have a choice. I get up and sit on the bed. Guess I will just lie down and try to sleep.

The next morning we were awoken by Scarlet screaming at us and the Turks for not waking us up sooner. "We'll miss the boat if we don't hurry! Get your asses in gear now!" She screamed at us. The Turks jumped to attention and started escorting us out of the room as quickly as possible.

We were placed in the cargo hold. All of the Turks were there now. Scarlet stayed on deck. She couldn't stand the smell down there. I cannot either. I am trying very hard not to breathe much. Looks like the rebels and even the Turks are doing the same. I have never been on a boat so this could either be very uneventful or I will just get seasick. I hope it's not the latter. Everyone has the same look on his or her faces. The smell is disgusting and I have no idea where it is coming from. They should clean it occasionally! The smell is making me gag and the Turks have handkerchiefs covering their mouths. The girls do not seem to be doing so well though. Looks like they might throw up. I may throw up!

"How long…until…we can…get off…of this thing?!" I go into a coughing fit. Should have kept my mouth shut. Now I can taste it. I pull my shirt over my mouth and continue to cough. It subsides after a minute or so. No one answers my question, but everyone is thinking it. I guess they do not know.

It gets eerily quiet and all we could hear was each other's breathing and the crashing of the waves against the boat. Some of the rebels were getting seasick. One of them had already run behind some boxes to throw up. No one moved, but some of them cringed. Once it was quiet, everyone relaxed a bit and none of us expected the bang we heard. Something in the water slammed against the hull of the boat, but did not do any damage. The sound scared the hell out of some of the rebels. I flinched along with some of the Turks. One rebel screamed and was quickly quieted by his friends. When the cargo door finally opened and we filed out into Junon Harbor, we were all happy to be out in the sunlight. We stretched and breathed in deep trying to get rid of the cargo smell.

We were marched down the streets to a side entrance. We would be heading up to the helicopter pad. From what I could see, Junon was an ugly place. Everything looked half finished. Looks like their working on the canon. Scarlet and two Turks walked in front of us shoving their way through everyone along the way. The rest of the Turks surrounded us. I was at the back. The female Turks walked behind me. I felt like they were staring at me.

On the way, we saw several rookie soldiers and a few 1st and 2nd class soldiers. Everyone got unnaturally quiet as we went past them. No one dared speak and have to hear Scarlet yelling at anyone. She was in a very foul mood today and she was taking it out on everyone. The only luxury we were afforded was arriving in Midgar by helicopter.

"Damn! It has to rain now. We'll have to wait until it lets up." They shove us into a room just to the side of the helipad. Scarlet and another Turk are glued to the window. The pilot refuses to go while it is raining and for good reason. Apparently when it rains here it pours, big time! It does not last very long though. After about ten minutes, the rain lets up and the sun comes out shining and makes the air feel hot.

There are two helicopters. Scarlet splits us all up into two groups. I end up in the group with her much to my displeasure. She did that for a reason. I am 'special cargo' as she put it. I suppose Hojo had a little chat with her after seeing us. The rebels actually look like they are doing worse than before. I am just a little banged up from being thrown around, but the rebels have gun shot wounds and various other battle scars. The Turks went all out on them in Corel. The one thing I have noticed is that the world is very pretty from the sky. If I were not a prisoner and had the time for sightseeing, I would have to say it is nice. I cannot really see much since I can only see the mountains through the small section of the window I am allowed to look through.

We all notice the difference when we get near Midgar. The sky is much darker and there is a fog covering the city. The air smells weird and the glow from the mako reactors gives the fog an eerie light. Once we landed on top of Shinra building, we had the chance to look around as everyone got off the helicopters. It was hard to see some of the sectors because of the fog. The fog closest to the reactors was the thickest.

Only a few sectors were clear. From what I could tell, it was sectors five, six, and seven. Maybe that is why Aeriths flowers grew there. It is the only place that gets real sunlight. Everything looked so small from up there and there was little time to try to appreciate it. We were taken into the president's office. We were lined up in front of him and Scarlet gave him her report. He barely looked it over and told them to take us away. Before we could leave the room, Hojo came in and laughed gleefully. He came and stood right in front of me and I just wanted to slap the smile off his face.

"Take them to the prisoner cells I'll deal with them later. You…." He leaned forward smiling, "will come with me." I glare and one of his aids forces me to follow him.

Once we reach the lab, the aids gather around me and start cleaning me up. Before they do so they remove all of my clothing. After much scrubbing I am completely clean and Hojo returns frowning at me. "It looks like they did not take good care of you!" Hojo did not sound pleased by that. "I suppose it doesn't matter. A nice mako bath will fix you up." Wonderful. I, sort of, fight his aids, but that fails and they put me in the chamber as per his orders.

The mako starts to fill the chamber and my fear of water kicks in. I whimper and shake looking at the mako as it rises. _It will not kill me…if it would then he would not use it._ I will just keep telling myself that. It has only reached my elbows and I am already crying.

Fears like this are suppose to be irrational, but it sure does not feel that way to me. Water can kill you. You can drown, or be eaten in it. It is unpredictable and something that you cannot control. The mako is over my head and I try to hold my breath. Not even a minute later I breathe in the mako. It burns, but I am ok. I am not drowning! Fear subsides, slightly. The burning sensation gets worse and I pass out.


	4. What is Reality?

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 4 What is reality

I wake up and find myself on the floor below the lab. I am not alone and I have no idea how long I have been out. I can hardly see anything. I do feel better, but my arm hurts. After a few minutes my vision clears somewhat and I examine my arm to find that he has put an identification number on me. 02A. I have new clothes that apparently do not involve underwear of any kind. Looks just like hospital clothing. There is someone else there too.

He is sitting across from me holding his knees and his head is down. He is shivering. He also has long silver hair. _Is that really him?_ He also has a mark on his arm. O1A. He looks to be about the same age as I look. We sit in silence for a long time. I get bored fast and attempt to hum a song. Ironically, only final fantasy songs come to mind. Therefore, I hum Gaia. While I did that, I looked around the room. There were several monsters trapped there as well. I felt sorry for them...and us. We all have the same problem...Hojo.

After a while, my mind wandered off. I kept wondering what Hojo was going to do with me. What is everyone at home doing? _Wonder if they think I am dead._ I suddenly felt eyes on me. He was watching me. I stopped humming and looked right at him. It was an odd feeling. His eyes looked like they could pierce steel, but he only seemed to be thinking. He looked up at something behind me and then put his head back down. I looked, but did not see anything. I wonder what he saw. I was still thinking about his eyes. There was malice there, but also something else.

The next day Hojo came to see us. His face lit up and an evil grin was stuck on his face as he examined both of us. Neither of us looked at him. Sephiroth was perfectly still and he was still sitting in the same position. We both flinched as Hojo started laughing. I guess you never get use to hearing that. I only glanced up at him and in that moment, he opened the door telling us to follow him. Sephiroth got up first and stopped at the door looking back at me.

_What a cold and sad stare._ I slowly get up and follow behind him. It is extremely cold in the lab and for us...mostly me, it feels even colder. I shiver as they once again remove my clothing. I sigh angrily and hear a small laugh beside me. No one else noticed. Sephiroth is beside me and they are doing the same to him. I will not look!

Hojo did all kinds of tests on us both. He checked everything, a full examination. Reflexes, strength (which I have little of), hearing, eyesight, etc. It took forever. He looked over the results and frowned. Guess he is not impressed. His expression changed rather quickly though. "Curious..." He started mumbling and picked up a needle. He came over to me, took my arm, above my elbow, squeezed hard and I am guessing was hoping to get a blood sample. My fear of needles kicked in just in time and I slap the needle out of his hand.

He sighed and let go of me motioning for an aid to come and help him. They strapped me down to the table. I struggle, but it is no use. Sephiroth is lying on another table beside me. He was just watching me, but he is not even strapped down. They are acting as if he is not there. Hojo returns with a new needle and takes the sample. I cry because that fear will never go away. Satisfied Hojo goes and tests the sample. He seems very interested in what he might find.They undo the straps and let me sit up. I wipe my face and one of them gives me a handkerchief. _Stupid fear of needles! I just had to cry in front of him. _He is still watching me and he is now sitting up.

"The more you struggle, the more it will hurt." He actually spoke to me. I open my eyes and the aid takes back the handkerchief. He sounds so cold. His voice is a bit deep for a twelve year old. Hojo comes back and has two needles in his hand. He knows better than to come near me without strapping me down first. He starts with Sephiroth who remains perfectly still and his face is unreadable. I on the other hand cry. This time he is injecting us with some unholy compound. It burns and leaves a mark on my neck. It also makes me pass out.

"Lilia! Wake up!" That sounds like Sarah. Wait...she should not be here. She screams and a man is laughing. "Help! Someone help us"

"Shut up! Stupid girl." I open my eyes and a man is standing in front of Sarah. He hits her and she falls to the floor. She is crying and he walks over to me. He raises his arm. _This part looks familiar._ He is holding a knife and before I can react, he plunges it in my chest. I do not feel the pain at first. He sits there for a moment laughing and then he rips it out. We both look at it and watch the blood drip from the blade. It is strange how I do not feel anything at all. Most people do not like the sight of blood, but it does not bother me one bit. Sarah coughs and looks away. She hates blood.

"You bastard!" Jen runs in and throws him off me. He drops the knife and she kicks it under the bed before he can reach it. She hits him and he falls back. Before he can recover, she kicks him. Sarah crawls over to me. Everything sounds so far away. _It is getting dark. Is this a dream?_

"Come on, Lilia, you can't die yet!" It sounds like she is talking through water. The world fades away until I am covered in darkness. Sounds die away and all feeling is lost.

_-You are not dead-  
-What was that? Who are you-  
-We saved you from that fate-  
-Why-_

I woke up coughing up blood. I sat up and looked down at my chest. There was blood all over me. I sat there shocked. _What kind of dream was that?_ Someone screamed and opened the door to our 'cell' as I have dubbed it. She is carrying two trays of food and she drops them and runs over to me. "What happened? Where is all this blood coming from?" She makes me stand up and takes me up to the lab. She does not even notice that Sephiroth has followed her. He must be curious. Hojo freaks out and starts yelling as soon as he sees me.

"What the hell happened to her?" He looks at her, but she does not know. I sure as hell do not know. I will not talk to him. Sephiroth says nothing. "Leave." Hojo says it quietly, but menacing enough to make her run out the door. Sephiroth moves forward to help me stand without being told to. Guess he knows what Hojo wants better than anyone does. "What happened, boy"

"Nothing." He replies. Hojo looks unconvinced. He motions for him to lay me on the table and he does so after removing my clothes. They are soaked in blood. Hojo starts to clean me up and gasps.

"There are no wounds. The blood is coming from nothing. That's not possible!" He looks intrigued by this and Sephiroth has not moved once. I do not think that this will end well for me. He finishes cleaning off the blood and runs some tests. I am out most of the time.

I wake up and we are back in our cell. I examine myself and find that everything is intact and that there is no more blood. I have new clothes now too. Sephiroth is sitting beside me in the same position as always. His head is turned slightly so he can see me. The woman, from before, returns bringing yet another set of trays for us. She looks nervous, but better than before. "Well it's nice to see that you're ok now. Here's you dinner!" She sat it down in front of us and we both hesitate before taking them. "Don't worry. I made it myself." She winks at us and waits outside for us to finish.

"Wow. It's good." I approve of it, but I do not even want to know what it is. Normally I would not eat it because it looks gross. Sephiroth is more hesitant to try it than I am. He glances over at me and then takes a bite. He slowly begins to eat it, but I think he likes it. He finishes his before I do. The woman comes back in and takes the trays. She seems cheery now. I think she is newly dubbed cheery lady. Sephiroth does not seem to like her cheeriness one bit. His eyes narrow as she smiles at us. She shuts the door and leaves. We sit in total silence. He goes back his normal position and I suppose he goes to sleep. I do the same, but I do not go to sleep right away. It quiet for the most part. The other test subjects are making all kinds of racket. I wish they would shut up. "Be quiet!" I am frustrated at the noise, but they do not stop.

"That's enough." They immediately become silent at the sound of his voice. They must be afraid of him just like everyone else. He does not even look up. I leaned back and went to sleep. That was nice...I think.

"Lilia." A dark figure stood before me. A man, but who is it? _How does he know my name?_ "This isn't the first time we've met." He laughed and then sighed as he kneeled down beside me. I am lying on what I presume to be the floor. Everything is white. No sound exists here except for our breathing.

"You don't remember?" I shake my head. _How would I? I cannot see what you look like._ "You were very small then...I'm not surprised." From nowhere a flood of voices rushed in. It was as if someone had just opened the door to a store and everyone was coming in to get the latest gadget or toy.

"Time you go...you can't stay here..." He disappears and lights take his place. Thousands of lights glowing green. I close my eyes and open them to see things have changed. No more white just black with green lights everywhere. _What is this place?_

I wake up the next day and it seems fairly early in the day. No one has come in to wake us. Sephiroth is already awake. He is staring at the door. Guess someone will be coming in soon. He must know exactly what time it is. So far, I think they have come in the same time each day. He must get frustrated when no one comes in. He must like getting out of here. Being stuck in here for a long period does not sound like something he could stand for long. He begins tapping his foot in frustration.

About an hour later, the door opens and Hojo comes in followed by some executives and Turks. He stops in front of us and they listen to him talk about us. It took me a second, but I realized that the president himself had come down to see us. He came closer and pointed at each of us talking to Hojo. I guess he asked a question. Hojo must have thought that it was stupid from the way he answered. The president did not take notice of his attitude and pointed at me again saying something. Hojo turned and looked at me, smiled, and then turned back answering him. _What was that?_ Sephiroth had reverted to hiding his face from them. He must hate them all. He was shaking, but I do not think that he was cold. I certainly felt that way.

Someone tapped on the glass. I looked up and it was Scarlet. I just glared at her and then stuck out my tongue. She gave me an angry look and turned on her heel prancing away after Hojo and the others. "Idiots." I could feel him staring at me again. I looked at him, but his head was still down. I just frowned and did the same. Hojo will be back soon anyway. I was right of course. A few hours later Hojo returned and did the same as always. Took us up to the lab, did his little experiments on us and then put us back in our cell. Today he seemed particularly interested in me.

I guess the strange thing that happened and the test results from my blood would have something to do with it. He hooked me up to many machines and was very happy with what he was seeing. He kept laughing at the results. _What the hell is so funny?_ He almost skipped over to Sephiroth. He acted as if it was Christmas. Sephiroth did not like his attitude at all. I guess happy never rubbed off on him.

"This is just wonderful!" I was getting a scan done and he had me strapped down so I could not move. I honestly do not see what he is so happy about. Hojo came back over to me and he was mumbling to himself, but not quietly enough. I bet it's the excitement.

"Interesting. Her DNA looks human, but it is nothing like ours...er...at least the normal people. Now that I've enhanced her DNA...it should work." I feel sick. That does not sound good, however interesting it is. He released me from the straps and I stood up stretching. Sephiroth had gotten up too and he was looking at me funny. _Did he hear what Hojo said about me? Is his hearing that good?_

More tests and weird Hojo behavior and we were back in our cell. This made Sephiroth and me very happy. Hojo had skipped back up to the lab mumbling happily to himself. I groaned and sat down holding my knees. Sephiroth had already done that and had his head down. He must not get bored in here. If I did not have an overactive imagination I do not know what I would do. I did feel a little tired. All of the tests and whatnot took up most of the day and after being in a mako bath for a few hours I feel drained. Hojo seemed to have the most energy out of all of us. I sleep and do not dream. I'm actually glad for that. Lately my dreams haven't been very nice.

We wake up early again and Hojo comes in at the usual time. Everything goes about the same as before. Hojo is just as enthusiastic as before making both us hate him for it. I've labeled him as a pedophile since he takes more pleasure in examining us by hand than anything else. I hate it cringing the whole time. He has also learned that he must strap me down for this as well. I don't like to be touched and this is definitely a violation of personal space. Sephiroth thinks it's so funny. Of course, I'm the only one who hears him laugh. The one thing I do have is really good hearing. I still don't understand why he just sits there.

Our day finished we get to sit in our cell and relax until dinner comes. Cheery lady comes after three hours of boredom and gives us our food. We give it weird looks. She claims that it's good for us. Looks like slop. "There's something else you should know. The lab is being upgraded tomorrow so I'll come to get you early. You two can't stay here while they do that. All of the other specimens will be moved as well." Woot! My heart jumps and I'm sure everyone can see the happiness I feel right now. We eat and hate it then go to sleep. Getting up early will be a challenge for me.

She comes in and shakes me awake telling me to hurry. We are taken down a few floors and to what appears to be a cafeteria. She explains that there are actually two. One for the staff and another for those in military. The staff gets better food. It's around five a.m. and the breakfast selection is similar to something I'm use to seeing. Eggs, toast, something that looks like ham. It all smells good and we get to pick whatever we want. I fill up a plate followed by Sephiroth and cheery lady is in front. She pays and leads us to an empty table that is obscured by plants. We eat in silence and then she starts talking. She begins, mostly speaking to me, about what things we can do today. We have to stay in the building and there is not much we can do since she is on duty.

I had not noticed before, but the Turks were here keeping an eye on us. They do not trust us at all! It is just a precaution. I doubt that Sephiroth would run away. I know I would in a heartbeat. I know how to get out without being seen. It might be hard being so high up and the side stairs does not go up this high. I could just steal her card and use it to get down lower. I know that with them watching me that plan would not get very far.

Once we are done eating she decides to tell us a little about Midgar. We look out of the window at the fog-covered city and she points out the sectors to us. I was right about where they were. Sephiroth does not look particularly interested. He must have heard all of this before. "What? Are you getting bored?" She says seeing his face. He does not speak or move. She takes that as a yes and we leave. "Honestly there isn't much we can do. I have work to do so both of you will just end up sitting in my office with me until we can take you back." She gives us a thoughtful look and then escorts us there.

Her office is barely big enough to fit all three of us. There are shelves of books and stacks of paper lining the walls. There is a small desk and chair almost thrown into one corner and a small armchair across from that. "Why don't you take the chair." She directed this towards me and I did so since Sephiroth obviously did not care. I was already bored and in need of something productive to do. I would like to draw now more than anything. If would make me feel better about being stuck here. I know exactly what I would draw. I only have two real choices anyway. Something from here or home. If it is something from here it will be a comic of Hojo dying somehow. There will be lots of blood and me dancing around in it. That does not make me a bad person.

Sephiroth sits on the floor doing his usual thing and I am looking for something to write on. "Um...can I have some paper?" I almost sheepishly ask. I have hardly said a word lately so it sounds strange to me.

"Paper? I have a note pad you can use." She dug it out from the bottom drawer of her desk and handed to me. "Do you want a pen or pencil"

"Doesn't matter." She gave me a pen and a pencil. I finally settled down in the chair and drew. I ended up drawing many things. I drew my old self first. Now that I had been seeing myself in a different light the old look is strange. Here the people are just a bit different. Then I tried to draw this new version of myself. I gave myself new clothes to match how I felt a bit better. This one came out looking frail. I drew myself sitting down barely looking up through my now white hair. The eyes looked almost dead. _Is that really how I feel right now?_ I compared the two versions of myself and almost did not see any resemblance. I look so different now I cannot even recognize myself. I decided to just turn the page and draw something else. Dwelling too long on something like that might just make things worse.

The next picture was a comic. I started by drawing Hojo in the lab with a test subject. He is doing some unspeakable thing to it and its screaming. He is laughing and scribbling away. Next he is getting ready to move it and thinking that it has well tranquillized, he carelessly starts to remove it. Halfway through it wakes up and mauls him. His aids come too late and just stand there as the thing continues to maul him. I drew it as realistically as I could to portray his death with pride. I went all out and made sure to draw exactly what the experiment was doing to him. The only thing now is to make sure no one can find this and show it to him. He might try very hard to make my life even more miserable than before.

I decided to try to draw something happy...or at least something that resembles happy. Every attempt turned out worse than before. They got more graphic and bloodier as time went on. The only thing that would make me truly happy right now is if Hojo mysteriously dropped dead and I just have to see it. I would like my comic to come to life though. It would make me very happy and be entertaining at the same time. I want to think that Sephiroth would enjoy seeing that too, but I get the feeling he would not jump for joy or anything. I actually ended up drawing a picture of Sephiroth. I drew him just as he is now. Sitting down leaning against the wall with his head down. After looking through all of them excluding the first two I ended up with around forty drawings. Before I realized it cheery lady was looking over my shoulder.

"Wow! Those are really good!" I jumped when she said it not expecting her to be right there behind me. She took the note pad from me and started flipping through all of the pages. She looked at the first two for a long time and then moved on to the comics. She frowned a little at them, but gave a hesitant laugh. She looked at the last one of Sephiroth and was glancing back and forth between the picture and him. "It looks just like him." She said.

Sephiroth was looking at us with his head turned slightly knowing that she was talking about him. She took it upon herself to show him and I held my breath. My mind was shouting at her, but I did not move or speak. _No! I do not want him to see! I mean I do, but I do not!_ She showed him and he slowly reached out a hand to take it. "See...it looks just like you! Guess we've got an artist in our midst." She smiled at me and let him have the note pad. While he looked at it she got up and went back to her desk. "I think I'll hold onto them for you. Hojo wouldn't like most of them."

I could not make myself get up or look away. I had to force myself to breathe. I wanted him to like it. He had not even tried to look at any of the other drawings yet. He was still starring at the same one. Then he closed it and started at the beginning. He looked at every picture for what seemed an eternity. The first two took the longest. He looked carefully at them as if he could see exactly what they represented in some way. The comics he looked at several times. I guess he just read them the first time and then took the time to examine them. I could barely see it, but he was smiling ever so slightly. When he finished he got up and gave it back to me never saying a word. The smile had faded away as if it had never been there. I had wondered if he could even smile at all. Now I know he can, but who am I to try. He scares me.

We were finally allowed back in our "cell". It was already dark outside. They had started there and now there were places for us to sleep. I think I may be the only one who uses them. All of the specimen cages are high tech needing a card swipe to open just like ours. The specimens could not rattle their cages anymore since they were bolted to the floor. Looked kind of like the pet store.

Even the elevator had been upgraded. You did not need anything special to use it, but it worked ten times better than before. The first time I had ever been in it it jerked and screeched. It was still pretty much all the same though. We both fell back into the same thing. He sat with his head down and I sat daydreaming before falling asleep.

Author: Gyne is unhappy for the computer is being gay! I have decided the microsoft word on the schools computers suck ass! I almost lost this chapter!


	5. Show and Tell

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 5 Show and Tell

A small church congregation stood gathered in the church with their heads lowered. The pastor prayed and others mouthed their own silent prayers. No sound came from the scene. No words, breath, shuffling, or tapping. Not even the rain made a sound as it poured over the building. Complete and utter silence in the room. A strange thing to find here in a place where the building has yet to settle and people cannot stay still.

The pastor walks down the aisles finished with his prayer and stands by the doors. No one else moves or raises their heads. The room is eerily dark almost like twilight. Without warning sounds come in like a flood. The rain hitting the roof, feet shuffling, sniffing, crying, etc. all sounded at once and magnified.

"I'm so sorry." Those were the only words that cut through. "I helped you in the end, but...not her." It was a mans voice, but no one in the room had spoken. Silent and unnoticed an invisible watcher had stood amongst them all. He was in the corner. No more than a dark figure compared to the churchgoers. He did not move, but merely turned his head. "Lilia..."

The scene shifts and the pulpit and choir seats were replaced by a closed casket. The people were gone and only the man remained. He slowly stepped forward and lightly touched the casket. He slowly opened it and once he was finished stepped back. "Forgive me." He disappeared and I stepped forward to see who it was lying in there. A woman that looked familiar. My mother!

I woke up with tears in my eyes. It has been a month and I still have not gotten use to all of he strange dreams I have been having. That white place and the mystery man is a lot to deal with so frequently. This dream was one of the worst. Seeing my mother lying in the casket like that was not what I had expected it to be. Also there is Hojo. His mood lately has gotten worse and worse. After the lab was upgraded we now had twice as many things to do during the day. At least it seemed that way. Hojo could do a lot more things and he had more aids now so they could do a lot of the work.

The aids were different now. Their clothes made it so that you never got a good look at them, but something was off. When I had first arrived they seemed like normal people. Now they are hunched over and you can hear scraping sounds as they walk by. There is also a horrid smell of decay coming from them. I now know that they are actually dead! Hojo is using the dead to get cheap help! I got a glimpse of ones face (only around the eyes) and the skin was gray and peeling off. How did he managed to do it and how long they last? I am curious, but horrified at the same time. I have far more respect for the dead.

Hojo did not seem particularly happy after his visit with the president. They want to see progress not hear about it. He came in cursing and flailing his arms in anger. It was funny. Especially when he accidentally knocked, open one of the cages by hitting the emergency release. A small, but very deadly monster got out.

I was disappointed when he killed it with ease. So, he did 'enhance' himself as well. It does make sense. He is around dangerous monsters and Sephiroth. If he did not have the strength to handle them, he would lose everything. Sephiroth watched and frowned. I think he looked disappointed if only for a second or two.

"Damn executives. What do they know?" Hojo threw up his hands in frustration and opened our cell. "Get up!" He motioned for us to hurry and we headed to the elevator and into the lab above. "Wait over there." He pointed to the center of the room where a monster was caged in the chamber. We did and waited. Hojo left and returned twenty minutes later with all of the executives and Turks. The president stood in the middle of them all.

"Alright, Hojo, show us what they can do." The president said. Hojo came over to us and mumbled angrily. He grabbed my arm and pulled me away. One of his aids opened the chamber and ushered Sephiroth in closing the door behind him. They want a show of strength. Hojo stopped standing behind the computers and squeezed my arm tightly.

"You'd better not disappoint me." We heard the president say.

Hojo ignored him and watched along with everyone else as Sephiroth ripped the monster apart. It was a Malboro. It had barely had time to try to poison him before he ripped of a limb or two. It made a sound that we all interpreted as a scream. Sephiroth did not stop when it was dead though. He did stop for a second and looked at us. There was no emotion in his eyes. He was blind to the fact that we were even there. The only thing he saw was the monster. He turned back to it and finished what he had started.

Hojo waved an arm and the aids opened the door, with trained precision gave him a tranquilizer, and dragged him over to us sitting him down beside me. He was still holding a piece of the Marlboros flesh. Looking over at the executives I saw that they were mildly impressed. They've seen this before.

"That was perfect. What about the girl? What exactly have you been doing with her?" The president said giving Hojo a questioning look. Hojo released my arm and went to talk to them. Maybe he does not want me to hear whatever he has to say. Sephiroth moaned beside me and reached out grabbing my ankle. I jumped, but managed not to scream. I leaned over and tried to pry his hand off, but he had a death grip on me.

"Please let go. You're hurting me!" I try to whisper. His eyes fly open and he stares at me for a moment, then he releases me and stands. He turns away looking ashamed. Hojo and the president's conversation became a bit heated and Hojo is now shouting.

"I need time or it may not work. What good is it if she dies?" Sephiroth and I both turn to look at them wondering (I hope) the same thing. _What are they talking about?_

"Fine. I want to see the results when you are done. You'll be finished if I don't like what I see." The president told him. He waved an arm and all of them filed out of the room leaving Hojo standing there shaking with anger. He came back over to us and frowned at us both. He said something under his breath and told his aid to take us back to the cell.

"Did I hurt you?" I looked up at him. It is the second time he has actually spoken to me, but this time he sounded different. I shake my head no and he sits down doing his normal routine. _Was he really concerned or was he just making sure?_

After three months of many of the same old things, I learned that I had a problem. Today is my birthday. So, in this world I am now thirteen. The real problem is that I am cramping to high heaven. I get to relive getting a period. This will not be pretty. I am not nice during this time and my friends learned to leave me alone, but here I do not have that option. Hojo is not exactly going to leave me alone for a few days. Somehow, I need to keep this as quiet as possible for as long as possible.

The cheery lady comes in to wake us and notices that I seem a bit different today. I try to ignore her, but the cramps hurt and I do not like them. "Are you feeling bad? Let me guess," she leaned in closer to whisper, "it's that time of the month." I nod slightly and she stands up smiling. "Don't worry I can fix that for you." I do not believe her. She leaves hastily and returns a few minutes later with a box full of things. "Here you go!" She seems happy to be showing me this. It is not fun. I frown at her and look through the box. Pills, pads, tampons, and some other things she put in there for me. I finally get some underwear! She is explaining what everything is for in a hushed voice. Sephiroth is watching us looking mildly interested in what is going on. _Does he know what a period is?_

After she leaves, he gets up and sits next to me. He looks in the box and pulls out the tampons reading the description. "You probably shouldn't do that." He ignores me and then his expression changes. The look on his face is priceless. I laugh at him and he slowly puts them back. I take out the pills and read the description. They are a lot like Midol, but better. _She made them!_ I take one and sit the box next to me. After a few minutes, I can tell they work. The cramps are gone and I feel ten times better. I do know, however that tomorrow will be worse.

We go through the usual in the lab, but by the end of the day, Hojo is acting strange around me. Maybe he has noticed my problem or cheery lady told him. He had noticed the box, but said nothing about it. He sends Sephiroth back to the cell alone. I am strapped down and he puts me to sleep. I wake up later feeling strange. I am in the mako chamber and Hojo is standing in front of me grinning from ear to ear. Something must have made him very happy and I know I am not going to like it one bit. He takes me out and sends me back to the cell where Sephiroth is waiting.

The next day things changed. I woke up bleeding as I had expected. Hojo noticed right off that I was even more irritable than usual and seemed to be going easy on me. He spent less time doing everything cutting out a lot of it. I am guessing he did not want to deal with the grossness of a period. Sephiroth was keeping his distance from me. He learned fast to leave me alone. I may not be as strong as him, but I can yell a lot louder.

This time cheery lady came in to help out. I needed a girl to be around. After about four days of hell it was over. However, Hojo went about his experiments with new fervor. He seemed all too excited that I got my period. I have my suspicions about what this could mean.

He spent the next few months building up my 'immunities' while Sephiroth was training. Sephiroth seemed to enjoy training. He was glad to go and get away from Hojo. He spent the whole time out of the lab while I was stuck lying on the table strapped down.

Hojo came over to me with another shot and gave it to me. I struggled, but less than before. It was just becoming more a waste of my energy. I do not know what he is giving me, but so far, every one of them has just made me feel awful. So far I am not dead yet, but I am waiting for the one that does it. After thirty minutes of waiting he removes the straps and says 'very good'. Once Sephiroth returns, we are sent on our merry way back to our cell.

"Hello you two!" Cheery lady brings us more food and then she did her usual wait outside for us to finish. Neither of us took a bite. "Is there something wrong with it?" I shake my head and Sephiroth does nothing. "You really should eat something after the day you've both had." I take a cautious bite. I do not want it, but I want her to go away. Sephiroth does the same. He must be thinking the same thing I am. It takes a while, but we both manage to finish and she takes them away frowning at us.

Sephiroth seems different now. He has stopped sitting with his head down. He is even beginning to defy Hojo. I honestly did not think he had it in him. I know I am different. I know I am not the weakling that I use to be. I am a completely different person. I look different, I feel different, and I do not think that anyone at home would recognize me. My hair has turned completely white and I am not sure how to feel about that.

A month later, we got a visitor from none other than Rufus. He was sent by his father to get a report of our progress. Hojo is not too happy about it. This is the first time Rufus has come in and seen us. Rufus saw us standing by the tables and came over to us. He seemed curious, but mostly about me. Sephiroth did not seem to like that though. He frowned at Rufus and stood closer to me than he normally would. I wonder how many times they have actually met. Rufus came over to me and smiled while looking me over.

"What's your name?" I do not answer and Sephiroth looks at me. He does not want me to answer him. Rufus noticed the look and seemingly shrugged it off. Oddly enough Sephiroth does not even know my name. "Don't feel like talking to me..." Hojo cut him off angrily pushing a folder in his face.

"Here! Now get out!" He must really hate having to listen to Rufus, but his father is the president. Before going, he looked back and smiled. He looked somewhat sad for a second. I dismissed it and we went about the usual. Today however there was one strange occurrence. It is not the first one, but it is the most significant so far.

Hojo has gotten into the habit of making us fight, Sephiroth first and then me. Sephiroth once again scared me. It does not seem like he is there at the time. I might ask him about it one day...when he scares me less. I fought afterward and managed to win relatively fast, but what happened next surprised us all. They were standing by the computers and I turned around to go stand by them, but they were both looking behind me. I turn around and there is a monster eating the one I just killed. To my surprise, it is a T-rexaur! _What is that thing doing here!_

Sephiroth was inching his way forward. He obviously wanted to try to surprise it, but he is not exactly the stealthy type. I stand where I am frozen. Maybe if I do not move it will not see me. It looks up for a second and everyone freezes. This, however, has no effect. It looks at us and sees more food and hoping for an easy meal it charges.

Sephiroth is the only one who moves. He runs in front of me to attack the T-rexaur knocking me down. I hit the ground and grimace as pain shoots through my chest. He pushed a little too hard. I hear Hojo cursing in the background and the T-rexaur roar and then silence. I look up and a very disappointed Sephiroth is coming towards me. The T-rexaur had simply vanished before he ever got the chance to hit it. Hojo came over to us and ushered us over to the elevator. Once back in our cell Hojo rushed back up to the lab mumbling to himself.

I know Hojo only did that because he is curious about what happened. I am more concerned than curious. I do not know what happened, but I am sure that I do not want to either. Sephiroth was staring at me. He has been doing that a lot. We have all noticed the little strange things that have been happening. He does not say anything, but I know. I have noticed about ten of them. There could be more, but I cannot be sure either.

"You were afraid." He was not asking, but I was surprised. Usually he does not talk to anyone. He has said a few things to me, but we have not talked. I nod. _I know I cannot beat that! You maybe._

"I know I couldn't beat it." He is still staring at me. I feel like he is trying to look through me as if there he will find the answer to his real question. "What is it?"

"Nothing." He looked away quickly. _Would you answer me for once!_ I frown and then realize I had said that aloud. He was looking at me, but there was a small amount of surprise there. He was thinking. I look at the floor feeling a bit nervous.

"It seemed like you...knew what it was." I slowly look up and see him looking at me with one eyebrow raised. "I suppose not though." I just sighed. It is not as if I can tell him. He would not understand. For some reason I just feel like crying, but I do not want to do that here. I do not even have a reason to do that. "Maybe...if you sing something...you'll feel better." _What did he say? Sing? _He put his head down.

"Sing?" He nods. "Sing what?"

"I don't know any songs, but you were humming when you first got here. Why not sing that one?" He did not look up at me once. I got the distinct impression that he wanted to hear it more than I did.

"Ok." I was hoping that this would make us both feel better. Mostly I just hoped that I could remember all of the words. I started singing and he did not move. I could tell that I sounded off, but it has been a while since I sang anything. He did not seem to notice. I was more surprised by the fact that I remembered every word and my voice did not crack once. I was concentrating so hard I did not notice that someone had come in. When I finished someone standing in the doorway, clapping surprised me. It was Hojo and he was grinning at me.

"My, what a nice voice you have there!" He stopped clapping, but the grin stayed. Sephiroth frowned and so did I. He just had to ruin it. Now we both just feel the same as before. "Get up and follow me." He said this more seriously and the grin lessened. He took us back into the lab and did some tests on us. He also did several different scans of our brains. I suppose he is trying to figure out whether the T-rexaur is something one of us created. He just frowned when nothing conclusive came from all of this and then sent us back to our cell where we were silent until we fell asleep.

I find myself in the white place as so many times before. I am lying down and the man is standing over me. He still has not shown me what he looks like. I have tried to picture what he could look like, but in the end I just dismiss them. They don't seem right.

"You should be careful." He said. I have no idea what he means by that.

"They may disappear, but they can hurt you." _Why do they appear in the first place? _He ignores my question. "That boy will protect you if you can't handle them." _Sephiroth?_ He nods. _What do you mean by that?_

"He might not say it or show it, but he does care." _I am the only one who is actually nice to him. _Then I thought about when Rufus was in the lab. _He was being protective! _He nods again then as the lights appear he disappears. The sound is deafening. I am blinded by the lights and wake up.

Four months later, we were up for another executive evaluation. As before, they filed in acting important with the Turks behind them. The president stood in the middle and looked happy. Everyone else just felt it was a waste of time, but this way they get to see exactly what they are paying for. They can decide for themselves whether Hojo should get more funding or not. Of course, I know they will just keep right on funding him as long as Sephiroth shows promise.

As before, Sephiroth fights and this time it is a Behemoth. He kills it in about five minutes. It seemed like he dragged it out longer than needed. They are all very impressed with him. I expected that though. He is impressive. I am next. I have no weapon, but I have gotten stronger. I have to fight a Ghost, which was only annoying because I had to wait for it to become visible so I could attack it. _Why must they be annoying?_

I easily dodged most of its attacks and only suffered a small amount of damage. I was impressed with myself. Doing this without a weapon is hard and I made it look easy. They seemed happy with our progress, but that soon changed. Scarlet scowled and pointed behind me.

"What is that horrible thing?" She said. The others looked curious and the Turks were about ready to go and fight. I turned around and saw...a shadow.

It was a few feet from me and stood hunched over. Its arms were too long for it and the hands were bent on the ground. If it stood up straight, the arms would go past its knees. Its skin moved flowing like mist. A mass of dark mist protruded out from its head to form hair. It jerked and dripped. Each drop that fell on the floor trickled back to a foot or hand to rejoin the body. It was deformed, a broken human shape.

"Is that supposed to be my shadow?" I said this louder than I had intended, but I am sure that they did not hear me. I looked down to make sure. Sure enough, there was no shadow on the floor beneath me. _It is my shadow, but why is it doing this?_

I backed away from it cautiously. I have no idea what it might do. Behind me I can hear the Turks moving everyone 'important' towards the door. It finally looks up at me. The facial features do resemble mine other than the glowing yellow eyes. It jerks forward a step and then another. Slowly it moves towards me and in turn, I back away.

Sephiroth calmly walks over to me and lays a hand on my shoulder. _Is he encouraging me to fight it?_ I look back at it and frown. Before either of us even gets the chance to do anything, it collapses in on itself and becomes nothing more than an ordinary shadow inching its way across the floor to me. Our eyes follow it until it stops resting beneath me as before. Sephiroth removes his hand and frowns slightly.

Hojo had stayed in front of his computers gaping at the sight. "Well. I can see you really have made quite a bit of progress, Hojo." The president looked over at us and there was a gleam in his eye. "They will be quite useful to us in the future." He turned around and left with the executives and the Turks following close behind.

For a moment none of us moved. We were stumped by what had happened. I was afraid that this was only the beginning of what could prove to be a great annoyance. I am surprised Hojo has not tried to capture any of them. So far, none of them has stayed for more than a few minutes. After Hojo finally came around, he decided that we had done enough for today. We were sent back to our cell and he did not come and get us. The cheery lady came and brought us our food at the usual time, but that was the only break in the silence that loomed between Sephiroth and me. He sat across from me deep in thought.

I know what he had just seen probably has him wondering what is going on around here. I know I am. So far, all I know is that things from other worlds (games), monsters and objects, are appearing in this one. I do not know how or why. So far mostly monsters from other ff games have shown up. There have not been that many, but I get the feeling it will continue.

"I heard what you said." Sephiroth said suddenly breaking my train of thought. I looked up confused because I had not actually heard what he had said. He repeated this and I frowned. "You knew what it was before it collapsed and returned to you." He wanted an explanation this time. He almost sounded angry. When I did not answer, he became frustrated. "Why won't you tell me?" I looked away. I felt like if I looked at him he would be able to see right through me. I knew that I could not tell him the truth. There is always the fact that he might not believe me, but I get the feeling that he would.

"Because, I don't know." That was all I said and all I was going to say to him on the subject. It is true though. I don't know. I may know what they are, but I have no idea why they are appearing here in this world where they should not exist. I don't actually know if that one came from another world, but I am not willing to rule it out just yet.

It would be easier if this were all a dream and I could just wake up with everything fine. I would not have to stay here with a lunatic scientist...and him. I would not have to fight monsters and feel sick because of the mako. I would not feel like crying all of the time. The only problem is that if this were not real then I might be dead instead.

Sephiroth sat there and stared as he usually did. It took me a moment to realize that I was crying and he looked sad. I tried to wipe the tears away, but no matter what I couldn't seem to stop crying. He stood up, came to sit next to me and then put his arm around me squeezing slightly.

For some reason, I felt better having him there beside me. He had never even tried to be friendly to me. If I got hurt, he never helped me unless Hojo wanted him to. He only spoke to me on occasion, when he wanted to know something or if I pressured him enough to answer. It felt strange.

"I'm sorry." He whispered into my ear. _Why is he apologizing to me?_ I did not dare move or say a word though. I doubt that he will ever be this nice to me ever again so I had better not screw it up. He leaned me against him and closed his eyes. Before long, I was sure that he was asleep and shortly after so would I.


	6. A look back

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up! This is not something I was going to write. I was just going to explain it later, but this actually works a lot better.

_"Is there a need for a reason to kill someone?"_- Mugen (Samurai Champloo)

Ch. 6 A look back

Part 1: Events after the attack

Someone is laughing and someone screams. _What is going on?_ I open my eyes just in time to see someone holding up a knife. _He's here! Guess they did not do much._ I scream and grab his arms trying to fight back, but I know it is useless. I am a weakling.

"Lilia!"

Sarah watches as the psycho fights with me and then we fall off the bed disappearing off the face of the earth. At first she remains still shocked at what she had just seen. She was afraid to move wondering if it is over. She stood slowly shaking violently. The people were gone, but there was blood on the floor left behind.

"What happened? Where did they go?" She could feel her heart thumping against her chest. She sat down on her bed trying to calm herself. _Lilia is gone. Jen. What about her? _Sarah frantically tried to remember if she were there. Sometimes she would stay with her boyfriend.

Cautiously she put both feet on the ground. "Jen?" She called out making barely a squeak. She began to panic when she did remember her being home and no answer came when she called a second time. She jumped from the bed heading into the living room. "Jen!"

She was lying on the floor unconscious. There was a gash on her forehead and it was bleeding profusely. Sarah tried to calm herself. She hated blood, but if she didn't do something Jen might die. She reached for the phone with one shaky hand and called for an ambulance barely able to recite the address. She collapsed on the floor passing out.

Once the ambulance arrived they were both taken to the hospital and a full investigation of what happened was under weigh. After spending most of the night combing the apartment for evidence they moved onto the hospital to see how Jen and Sarah were doing. Just from the apartment alone it was easy to tell that someone (psycho ex-step-dad) had come in and severely injured two residents and one was missing (me).

Jen had been knocked out the whole time so she didn't know what happened. She had opened the door to see who it was and what they wanted. She remembered getting beat up. After that she did not know

Sarah had been in the room with me and was about to go to sleep. She was very confused when she woke up. The detective was at her bedside asking her parents questions and soon would turn to her to ask more. She could barely make out what he was saying, but her mind had practically shut down. She could not think, and could not remember what had happened the night before.

"Sarah, what happened to your other roommate...Lilia?" When he asked her this she could only burst out into tears. She didn't know why, but hearing the name made her want to cry. He left and went to find what was left of my family to tell them the news.

They were already mourning several dead family members. At that time they thought they might be adding more as the killer had yet to be caught. It was the next day before he was able to tell them the news. The reaction was as expected. They cried and some got angry while others remained somewhat calm asking questions about what had happened. He could tell them very little since it was an ongoing investigation.

Jens family had to deal with a daughter in the hospital. When they found her they thought that she would recover quickly finding only the one wound on her head. It wasn't very deep, but bled a lot. Once she was moved they found that he had done more than just give her a concussion. He had actually broken a few of her ribs in the process of getting through the door. The only reason she was hurt so bad in the first place is because she chose to fight back. That's not something Sarah or I would have done.

Jen is the type that did not just sit there and let things happen. Even though she did not know what he wanted she knew that if he came in something bad was going to happen. Without even thinking she fought back trying to close the door before he could come in, but he was bigger and stronger. He had shoved the door into her breaking a few ribs and then he attacked her until she passed out. It would be a while before she is up and about.

Jens boyfriend was with them as well. He never left the hospital until her family finally forced him to go and get some rest. After only a few days she showed a huge improvement. She had woken up once, but only for a few minutes. She wasn't able to tell them anything and luckily she did recognize everyone and did remember what she had been awake for. They didn't tell her that I had disappeared.

It had already been two days and most people were coming to the conclusion that neither of us would ever be found. When someone goes missing the first twenty-four hours are the most crucial. If you don't find someone in that time then it is very likely that you will not find them alive, or you won't find them at all. In this case it would be the latter. We literally disappeared off of Earth.

They were all ready to give up and my family was busy getting funerals ready. He had managed to kill seven members of my family. Mostly that is due to the fact that they all live right next to one another. My mom, grandmother and grandfather, Mema (as we call her. She hates anything else), and my three brothers. One of them was actually his son. He was four. It would take a while to get everything arranged so I suppose that they might mourn for me thinking I am dead. Without a body there is not much else to do.

I do know that after all of the funerals are taken care of they will more than likely do their own search apart from the police. The police in that area are not very reliable and after two days of 'thorough' searching they give up. I would like to think that years later (if I never return) that they would still look for me.

**Part 2:** A look in the mind of Hojo

Hojo is sitting on the beach in Costa del Sol enjoying his vacation. It was almost over and he was actually excited to return to Midgar and continue his 'research', but everyone needs a break. Most of the people there were avoiding him. There was a wide circle of space between him and everyone else. Before he realized it his phone was ringing.

_What do they want now?_ "Hello." He said angrily. He was going to say more, but he held his tongue realizing that it was the president. He sat up in his chair and frowned. _I would prefer if this could wait until I got back. I never get to relax. _

_"Hojo, Scarlet has captured some rebels from Corel. I know you can find a use for them."_ Hojo sighed. He could, of course, but it was such a chore. Now that he had Sephiroth they meant nothing. They could always be killed an used as free aids. _"She also captured a child that was hiding there. They claim the girl was anyway. Scarlet will bring them by for you to look at."_ He perked up at this. He set the phone down and leaned back again.

_Having a female child might be worthwhile depending on her age. I'm sure that he would be happy to have a friend._ Hojo laughed aloud unable to hide his excitement. This was a little unnerving for those around him and another five feet of space was added between them. He couldn't wait for Scarlet to arrive no matter how insufferable she is. In a few hours they should arrive. _I can't wait!_

A few hours passed and the beach began to empty when he finally heard the truck arrive. Most people were leaving and going back to their homes or hotel rooms. Hojo had stayed where he was anticipating their arrival. Scarlet came to greet him and in her sweetest voice explained the situation.

"The rebels here tried to escape from us on the way here." Scarlet said. "The child didn't move though. She must be smarter than them." She went on, but soon realized that it was useless. He already knew and was already planning ahead. A Turk opened the door as instructed and Hojo peered inside laughing.

Everyone flinched at the sound of his voice. A smile crept across his face as he thought of the possibilities. He could care less about the rebels. They were pretty much useless as far as he was concerned. He could see that near the cab of the truck was the girl. He wanted to have a better look at her before simply accepting her.

"So let me see the child." He says after a minute of looking them all over. Scarlet sends in a Turk drag her out. She covered her face from the sun, but the Turk pushed it down. Even with the setting sun it was still very bright here. Hojo laughs and gets down on his knees to have a better look. He can't stop laughing.

_Strange clothes, but she looks the right age. It doesn't look like they've done too much damage to her._ The girl finally seems to focus and utter shock comes over her face. Then her expression changes to pure hatred. _That look. He gives me the same look. Pure hatred. And she doesn't even know what's in store for her._

Hojo stands up smiling and laughing gleefully. Scarlet takes this as a good sign and motions for the Turk to return her to the truck. She had noticed the look that the girl gave Hojo. _Does she know him somehow, or does he always get that reaction? _Scarlet sighed and put her hands on her hips. _  
_

"Well, Hojo, I'm so glad that you're pleased." The Turk throws her back into the truck and she crawls back to her original spot. They slam the doors shut. Scarlet smiles looking at Hojo, who is glaring at the Turk who had brought the girl out.

"Careful! Don't damage her." Hojo shouts and the Turk half-heartedly apologizes. "Scarlet, you had better make sure that she is taken care of." Hojo told her on the way over to the hotel. "I don't want a scratch on her. Is that clear?"

"I get it. You have something special in store for her don't you?" He does not answer and they go off to their rooms. Hojo sits at the desk and opens his laptop to ad the girl to his specimen list.

_Now then,_  
_Specimen 02A.  
Classification# 029851_

He begins typing up a profile and then sets a password. _As before I'll use the classification number._ He laughed at this knowing that most people won't be able to figure out something that is clearly written in the records. He would have to make a public copy of this so that he could give reports, but there is only so much he will allow them to know.

_Tomorrow my vacation ends. _He sighed thinking of all of the things that he would have to do. _I'll have to see how he reacts to her._ _It might be useless anyway if they aren't compatible, but he isn't the only candidate...just the most promising._

After a good nights sleep he headed back to Midgar with Scarlet and the Turks. Once the boat reached Junon he found a helicopter ready for him. There were two others there to transport everyone else. He would arrive just ahead of them, which was perfect. He could figure out their accommodations and save some time. Hojo could not wait to arrive and begin his experiments on the girl. He could not get rid of the grin that was stuck on his face. He actually skipped into the presidents office when they landed.

He was only about an hour ahead of them. His helicopter had taken off and they had been delayed by the rain. Ten minutes of rain had caused a thirty minute delay for them. Plus the time to load everyone up and leave. He had already decided what to do first. Most of the rebels would be place in deepground and for now they would just occupy the prison cells. The girl he would begin with immediately.

_First she will need a complete physical exam. I need as much information as possible._ He takes the girl to the lab and begins. She is cleaned up and the aids help to make the process go by a bit faster. Once all of the tests are done he puts her in a mako bath. _She is so fragile that it may be a while before I can do anything with her. She isn't strong enough to live through it._

The next few days were spent on getting her use to all of things he would normally do. The mako was a nice way to start. It would heal any wounds and boost the immune system. He did everything he did to everyone else, but in smaller doses. _Instead of accepting it like the boy her body is rejecting the cells. This will take some time. _

When the president asked for an evaluation of their progress Hojo was furious. He knew that Sephiroth was not what he had to worry about. The girl was a different story. It had only been a month and she was not ready for what he had instore. She was stronger, but he needed better results. He was not prepared for her to die on the first attempt. If this were rushed that would be the end result.

After Sephiroth showed off his fighting skills the president looked pleased. As Hojo feared he wanted to know about the girl. He felt sure that he could vie for more time. In order for his plans to work he had to.

"What have you been doing with the girl?" Hojo went over to him to have a more private conversation with him. This was a delicate matter. "I better not be giving you all of that funding for no reason."

"What I have planned for her will need more time. Much more. She is different from us as I stated in my report." The president recalled the report, but was not interested in scientific banter. He wanted results quickly.

"What progress have you made?" The president frowned. He wanted more out of this than he was getting. In his mind things like this should not take this much time. He wanted to overpower Wutai and fast. If Hojo failed then they could very well win.

"Not much it would seem. Her body is fighting the J-cells. She is perfect for this otherwise. I do not want to search for another candidate." Hojo said thoughtfully. _That would take far too long. _

"Well you had best show me more results in the next evaluation! You have four months until then." The president looked at Hojo seeing the anger flare up. He smirked adding to the anger.

"I need more time or it may not work. What good is it if she dies?" Hojo shouted at him. The president sighed and pretended not to be as angry as he was.

_We can always find someone else. _He thought to himself. He decided that if would be better if they did not do that. It might take too much time to look for someone else that was 'perfect'. _Hojo is so picky. _

"Fine, seven months. I want to see the results by then. You'll be finished if I don't like what I see." The president told him. He waved an arm and all of them filed out of the room leaving Hojo standing there shaking with anger. Once they were gone he sent the two back downstairs while he thought of a good solution.


	7. The Calamity Speaks

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!   
This was originally chapter 6.

Ch. 7 The Calamity Speaks

_I heard a voice in the wind  
Calamity of the sky  
It spoke to me softly  
Growing with the wind  
Words of horror and despair  
I shout in the wind my voice lost  
Lost in the wind  
Quieted by the calamity _

The next day we woke up early. Neither of us had moved. Even when cheery lady came in to give us breakfast, we had not moved. Sephiroth did not seem bothered by the fact that I was leaning against him, or that cheery lady was giving us weird looks. I felt that he was the one who should move away since he started it. I also had the feeling that he wanted me there.

In the back of my mind, I felt a slight pressure. I thought that I had heard growling, but dismissed it thinking it was just my imagination. It had only lasted for a few seconds, but it was noticeable enough to bother me.

The one thing I was glad for was that as soon as it was time for Hojo to come and get us he moved away. He went back over to his usual spot and acted as if nothing had even happened. Hojo could not know about that. He might jump to conclusions and that always means something bad. Jenova is a perfect example.

Hojo still seemed a little perturbed by what had happened yesterday. I was a little shaken by it, but I would not allow myself to let him see that. Sephiroth was gone once again and I am now alone with Hojo again.

I am a little surprised that they have not started teaching me a few things. If nothing else, it will make me stronger. Then I could finally get back at Hojo for all of the things he has done to me. I will get him back for Sephiroth as well. I know that he will never do it

The day goes by with me unconscious most of the time. At one point, I heard Hojo talking to someone, but I could not see anything and I could barely make out any words. I heard Hojo mention me and the other person laughed at some point, but then I drifted off again.

I woke up later still in the same place with Sephiroth staring down at me. He was smiling slightly, but that could be my imagination. He carefully helps me up and I notice that the lab is empty. "Where is everyone?" He shrugs.

"No one was here when I got back." He had turned away from me. I was naked and could not find my clothes. He pointed them out to me and I quickly went and put them on. _How long was he standing there staring at me? _"I guess we'll just have to wait."

"That's boring." I sigh and sit down on the table. He joins me and puts an arm around me. I ignore it and start daydreaming about being home. Lying in my own bed and going into the living room of the apartment to watch TV. It is almost nine-thirty and adult swim will be coming on. I do not choose any particular day that it should be. I never thought that I would miss being there.

After a few minutes, I realize he is rubbing my side. I do nothing at first enjoying the feeling, (there is not much to enjoy here) but then I move away feeling strange. Instantly he stops and puts both hands in his lap .

"I'm sorry." He whispered it as he got off the table and faced away from me. One hand still rested on the table and he removed it after a weird twitch.

_Now I feel bad._ "You don't have to apologize."

He stands there for a while and then sits back down well away from me. We sit there letting the silence grow between us. _Where is everyone?_ I started kicking my feet frustrated, and Sephiroth was doing the same. We stop when we hear a noise. Both of us look around for the source, but find that we are alone in the room.

The noise sounded like wood clanking together. Hearing that is odd enough when everything is made of metal. Sephiroth is looking intently up at the ceiling. I look too, but I cannot see anything up there except a few hundred tiles. We do not hear anything else and I decide that it was nothing. My mind says the opposite.

Finally, Hojo returned. He was fuming and did not even look at us. He went over to his desk and slammed down his clipboard. There was an aid there with him, whom he ordered to take us downstairs. For once, I am glad to see them.

The awkward feeling between us was still there. Neither of us speaks moves or looks at each other. Not even cheery lady could get us to talk and she tried very hard questioning us both for about thirty minutes. A few more hours passed and we were still silent both of us looking at the floor.

"I hadn't realized what I was doing." He said finally. He looked up at me briefly. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"It's not that." _How can I explain it to him without telling him everything? _I am glad when he does not press the matter further and we go to sleep. I honestly do not know what I would have said to him.

I find myself in the white place again. I have so many questions to ask that man. For whatever reason, I just cannot. This time however, he is not here. I hear a woman's voice speaking to me. The voice is harsh and frightening. Her presence is oppressive making it hard to breathe.

"Who are you?" I feel like I already know, but I do not at the same time.

_"They call me Jenova…." _I feel my whole body jump. _Why is she in my dream?_ As if to answer, she speaks again. _"I am a part of you and you are very interesting my dear. You know much…too much. You cannot hide that from me." _Her voice was soft. She sounded far away, but her voice was powerful. I could feel the malice in her voice, but it was subdued.

"Shut-up!!!! Leave me alone!" She laughs and it echoes in my ears. I am fighting with the air trying to somehow push her away from me. I run, but in the endless white, it is hard to tell if I am really going anywhere. Her laughter follows me wherever I go. I stop running knowing that I cannot get away from her. So instead, I turn and I can feel hands holding my arms. I struggle, but they hold strong.

Sephiroth is shaking me in an attempt to wake me. I am screaming and fighting him. I am not putting up much of a fight. I stop once I am awake and realize he is the only one there.

"Having a nightmare?" I nod and he helps me sit up. I cannot stop shaking. _This is bad! She'll know everything! _I cry as he sits down beside me. He puts his arm around me loosely. This time I do not care one bit. I lean against him for comfort. I am shaking badly as my mind races through all of the things that could happen .

Eventually I push that aside and try not to think about it. She cannot possibly find out everything if I hide it from her. Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. I cannot even quiet my mind at night much less hide something in it.

"It will be a few hours before she comes in to wake us." I nod and lean a little closer. _I do not think that I will be going to sleep again right now. _

Hours later and we have not moved. Cheery lady comes in and finds us already awake. I have not stopped shaking no matter how hard he tries to comfort me. By now, the shaking has been reduced to only my hands and a twitch every now and then. She sits our breakfast down and sits on the other bed, which Sephiroth still has not used .

"What's the matter with you?" When I do not answer, she asks him, which gets her the same thing with a shrug. She sighs and leaves to wait for us to eat. Sephiroth had to coax me into eating. I do not even know what it was or if I finished it. After she leaves, I finally decide to ask him it he hears her voice too.

"Sephiroth, I want to ask you something." He nods giving me the 'ok'. "Have you ever heard a woman speaking to you?" He stares for a moment and then nods. "She spoke to me in my dream."

"That frightened you?" He said it as if it were nothing. Apparently, Jenova does not scare him one bit. Either that or she has already gotten to him. I nod.

"It was the things she said. I don't like her." I was worried about this. I do not want her in my head or making me go crazy for that matter. I really do not want to end up like Sephiroth will.

"Ignore her then." It sounds so simple, but doing it is hard. Sounds like he has that covered. I on the other hand find it hard to ignore people unless I am daydreaming. Then I just cannot hear them. _Can you ignore someone in you dreams? I have never tried that before. _

"Is that what you do?" He nods slightly, but does not look at me. "I don't know if I can." I frown and lean against the glass. He gets up and moves to the other side of the chamber to wait for Hojo to come and get us. So far, I think cheery lady has kept our secret. I may have to start hating her if she decides to tell him.

I feel a little better by the time Hojo comes in. I try hard not to show him that anything is wrong. Sephiroth's face is unreadable. _I wish I could do that. _(Of course, everyone is always asking me 'what's wrong' because that is just the face I make when I daydream.) Hojo does not seem to notice or he just does not care.

We go through the normal routine and just as we are about to return to our cell Rufus comes in. He came bearing presents this time. Most of them were for me. Hojo was not really getting a present, just a lot of paperwork.

He gave me a dress that is too low cut for my taste, (I will never wear it. I am not a slut!) jewelry, (most of which is ugly) and shoes to go with the dress (I won't wear them either). He stood there glaring at Sephiroth as he handed them all to me.

"I thought that you might…." He started, but Hojo came over and interrupted him. Sephiroth was glaring and had moved slightly in front of me. He probably should not have brought the gifts in here. Not that I would accept them otherwise.

"Get out of here boy!" Hojo shouted at him. Rufus had placed the presents on the table next to me and Hojo was tossing them on the floor at his feet. "She won't need those cheap gifts." _I think he is defending me. You Are Not Allowed To Do That! _

"You forget whom you are speaking to, Hojo! When my Father…." Hojo gave him a nice slap. For once, I am rooting for Hojo. Rufus is annoying as hell .

"I am sure that he will see just what a spoiled brat you are. You are interfering with my research. Research that he asked for!" Rufus sat on the floor dumbstruck. Apparently, no one has ever slapped him or spoken to him like that. I understand why, but I would not be able to stop myself. "Why don't you go run to your father like a good boy?"

He slowly got up and started to say something before shakily leaving the room. Shortly after that, Hojo disposed of all the presents. We go downstairs and sit on the bed. We are both silent thinking.

_I think that Rufus should just give up. I hate him. Hojo really hates him, and Sephiroth is liable to kill him if he gets too close to me. _

"I wish that he would leave me alone." Sephiroth looks at me with a 'that can be arranged' look. Honestly, I think he just wants a reason to kill him. "Don't." He shrugs looking a bit disappointed then gets up and lies down on the floor to sleep. I lay down on the bed watching him sleep. I try hard to stay awake. I do not want to have to listen to her again. I sit there for hours watching him until I finally fall asleep as well.

In my dreams, Jenova was there. I could hear her laughing at me. I could also hear another voice. It was the man I usually saw there in the white place. He was trying to make her be quiet. I heard everything, but saw nothing. It felt like hours and hours passed before she was silent.

A month later, after a not fun physical exam from Hojo, I found myself in a mako chamber. I finally have reached the point where the mako only tingles and I do not feel the need to pass out. The problem with this is that I never realized that we stay in there for hours. This is where Hojo sits at his computer and does reports or whatever.

I looked over to see Sephiroth in a mako chamber as well. He was staring at me and I have become accustomed to that. (He stares a lot) I have made a conscious effort not to look at him while he was naked, but now I cannot look away. His body is flawless. Hojo made him that way, but I am sort of glad. He is pleasing to the eyes.

I know that he is only fourteen. He is already almost six feet tall and I am sure that he will only get taller. His eyes glow brightly most of the time, but in the mako, they look dull. My eyes move on down to his chest and to his six-pack abs.

Automatically my eyes move further down, but I stop myself. _I should not look! _I hear her voice in the back of my mind commenting on him. "_He is perfection and soon he will be invincible." _

_I would not say perfection. No one is perfect. He is not invincible either. _That is my answer to her. I am right. Going crazy and dying is far from perfect and invincible.

"_Hmph! What would you know about perfection? You are a waste of flesh!" _Even though I could hardly feel her there, her anger flared up making me feel as though I had been hit. Seconds later my brain clicks back on and I realize that I have been staring at him.

I glance at his face and saw a small smile there. I blush after realizing what he is staring at and face away from him. Hours later Hojo took us out and again I reverted to not looking at him.

I thought that he would say something to me, but he did not. He sat down on his bed staring at the floor. It looked like he was thinking about something. I could hear faintly in the back of my mind Jenova speaking. She sounded far away to me since I was awake.

_"He did see you looking." _The next part was garbled and I could not understand her. Then her voice came in a little louder and clearer. _"Why don't you try to get closer to him? He won't bite…." _She laughed a little.

I understood what she meant. She would like to know what I know of the future, but I am a nuisance. She could probably make Sephiroth kill me easily enough. It would not take much. I know how careful he is around me. He is afraid he will hurt me. _Am I really such a threat to you, Jenova? _

She does not answer me, but retreats to the back of my mind laughing. I sigh feeling relieved that she is gone for now. So far, her voice is only overpowering in my dreams when I have less control. If she speaks to me during the day, she is merely a whisper.

I notice that Sephiroth has not moved. He is still staring at the floor. I suppose that she is talking to him as well. Telling him awful things about me. _I wonder if she is able to tell him the things she has learned from me. I hope not!_

I leave him alone thinking that it would be better. If he listens to her then he might try to kill me as she intends. I only hope that somehow he realizes that she is lying and does not fulfill her wish.

I look around suddenly feeling that we are being watched. I almost missed it, but one of the ceiling tiles is moved slightly. That strikes me as odd so I stand up and move as close to it as I can. Sephiroth had gotten up to see what I was looking at and I had not noticed at first. I jump when I notice him, but we both continue looking at the tiles.

After examining it for a few minutes, it does not appear that anyone is there now. _Someone was watching us. _I stand there for a while longer still thinking about it while Sephiroth goes and lies down on the floor. Mostly, I am wondering who it could be and why they would be spying on us. After I cannot come up with a good answer, I go to bed.


	8. 14th Birthday for Sephy and Me

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 8 14th Birthday for Sephiroth and Me

I have now been here a year and today is Sephiroth's birthday. I only know this thanks to cheery lady. She came in with a special breakfast and she even bought him a gift. Sephiroth had been dreading this. He knew that she would be coming today and he put himself as far from the door as possible. She dragged him up and onto his bed and I went and sat next to him. That seemed to make him feel a little better. She sang happy birthday to him and he cringed.

I think that he hated her more for singing 'happy birthday' to him than anything else. I had to stop myself from laughing at his reaction. She wanted me to join in as well, but I said no. She tried giving him his gift, but he refused it. He was hesitant to accept any of it. It took both of us to get him to open the gift.

It was a necklace of a sword with vines around it. It did not look cheap either. Usually necklaces do not have backs, but this one did. He stared at it for a few minutes looking at the front and the back. We watched him with anticipation wondering if he would actually like it or not.

"What do you think?" Cheery lady asked. She was bouncing up and down excited. I sat next to him quietly watching. He slowly put it on and gave her a nod. He approved, but a nod is the best you can hope for. "I'm glad that you like it."

Then she turned her attention to me and kneeled down. "You know I don't know when your birthday is…." I refused to answer. I do not feel like celebrating my birthday in here at all. "Want to keep it a secret don't you?" I cross my arms and frown at her.

She sighs then cleans up our cell before leaving. Sephiroth immediately takes the necklace off and sits it beside him. "You don't like it?"

"I don't like wearing it." He then puts it away in a hiding place. "Hojo usually takes these kinds of things away anyway."

"So you are going to keep it?" He nods. _Maybe I should have a hiding place too._ Then I could hide my drawings there and cheery lady would not have to keep them for me.

"When is your birthday?" I gave him a 'why do you care' look. "Just curious." He shrugged and then sat down to wait for Hojo or someone to come and get us. I did the same and I never did answer him. I had not planned to tell anyone.

In the lab, we did some of the usual things and then Sephiroth left. I had to stay in there with Hojo by myself. I was not pleased with that at all. He seemed very happy with it. I slept through whatever he did to me and I woke up back in the cell. I did not realize how long I had been out until cheery lady came in an hour later.

She usually comes after dark to give us dinner. Sephiroth was there when I woke up and he was frowning. He was sitting on his bed glaring at the floor. "Is something wrong?" He does not respond.

"Are you ok?" I say this a little louder and he looks up slightly. I look away almost immediately seeing something in his eyes. He has never looked at me like that. Only Hojo gets those looks. I could hear laughing. Jenova must have something to do with this. _What have you done now?_

"_Nothing." _Her tone of voice tells me otherwise. Sephiroth continues staring and he is gripping the side of the bed tightly. There is a cracking sound and I can guess that he is breaking the bed.

He lets go and shakily puts his hands in his lap. He looks down and shivers. "Are you ok now?" He nods halfheartedly. I want to do something for him, but I get the feeling that if I do he might hurt me. I lay down, but I keep an eye on him until I fall asleep.

The man is waiting for me in the white place. It has been a while since he has spoken to me. For a while, Jenova dominated my dreams making them nightmares. It is nice to see him for a change.

"She will try to kill you, but she cannot force him to do it." He said. I knew that already, but she is not trying very hard. I find that I can speak this time. Normally I do not have a voice and can only 'think' hoping that he will answer me.

"She knows what is going to happen!" I have been wondering if she has told Sephiroth about that. I do not even know how much she does know.

"She does not know everything. If she did then you would be dead. She has chosen not to inform him of this." I feel relieved, but only a little.

_How much does she know? _That is the real question. I have tried not to think about any of it so that she will actually have to search for it. I hope that she did not try to look to far ahead.

"I will try to help you so that she will not learn too much." He faded as I started to wake up and just before I opened my eyes, I heard her voice shouting at him.

For the next month, I tried to be friendly to Sephiroth. I left him alone most of the time. He seemed to be fighting himself. He stayed away from me most of the time unless he could not help it. When he was in front of Hojo, he seemed fine. She is trying to be secretive.

Hojo did notice that something was wrong with him though. He was edgy around me afraid that he might end up hurting me. He made him stay behind one day just to find out. He did not seem to find anything wrong and sent him to join me in our cell. Sephiroth would not look at me and continued to be distant. I knew why so I did not bother him about it.

When it got closer to my birthday, I noticed that he was doing a lot better. _She must be giving up for now. _She has been leaving me along as well. I am glad, but suspicious. She has to be planning something.

This is when Sephiroth decided to suddenly become social. "I am sorry for how I have been acting." He apologized to me and almost became friendly. It happened slowly though. He apologized first and then slowly started talking to me more. Instead of nodding or something like that, he would actually respond with words.

Jenova had completely stopped talking to me. It felt good to have my mind to myself again. She is a bother. Sephiroth was beginning to get annoying though. With him being social, he has started to ask some questions that I do not plan on answering. I did get the chance to get to know him a little better.

He told me that for a while there were two other boys with him. He would not tell me their names. They left after a few years as Hojo's use for them changed. Once he was alone he heard her voice there to comfort him. He called her 'mother' and I had to try very hard not to interrupt him. He continued telling me what he thought of her and it sounded like he respected and maybe even loved her a little. I did not want to accept that though.

He also talked about how lonely it was and that he was not even sure if he had a family. I just let him talk being the good listener that I am. I tried not to say anything until he was done. I was more afraid that I would tell him something he should not know.

"No one has shared this chamber with me for about five years." He paused looking thoughtful. "I don't really like being alone." He smiled at me briefly and I smiled back. I felt bad for him. _He must feel so alone not knowing about his family. _I have decided not to tell him about that yet. I do not know if I ever will. He might get mad.

When my birthday does come around things seem to go as usual. I know I am older, but I do not feel any different. Sephiroth is acting a bit weird today though. I find out why after the day is almost over. "Happy birthday." He says all of a sudden. I look at him surprised.

_How did he find out?_ I feel a bit angry since I know I did not tell him. That only leaves one other person. Jenova._ You told him! _I shout in my mind. She does not answer, but I can feel her amusement.

"I know that you did not tell me, but…she did." He did not need to elaborate for me. I was pissed at her. Obviously, she could tell him things about me and my dreams had already confirmed that, but she wanted me to know. "She told me your name too."

_I hate you so much! _She laughs.

"_It's not hurting you, but I find it quite amusing." _She sounded a lot clearer today than any other time before. That worried me a little, but I was so mad that I ignored it. I could tell that Sephiroth was also having a conversation with her and he did not look amused.

He finally looked up at me and apologized. "She must like to irritate you. I did ask if she knew your name and birthday. You would not tell me."

"You never asked what my name was." I said crossing my arms frowning at him. He knelt on the floor digging through his hiding place for something. Then he got up and sat next to me holding out a fist. "What is it?"

"A present for you." He opened his hand and handed me a necklace. It was a small dragon holding a sapphire. My first reaction was shock. A present from Sephiroth. That is something I thought would **never** happen.

"It's pretty. Where did you get it?" I put it on and then looked at him waiting for an answer.

"It was a present I got years ago. Sheila usually holds onto the gifts she gets me." _So that is her name._ "I asked for it so I could give it to you."

"When did this happen?" I never saw her give him anything other than breakfast and dinner. I frowned looking at the necklace. It was small, but well made. _Why did he want to give me a present anyway?_

"Yesterday on my way back from training." He smiled looking pleased with himself. "I thought you would like it."

"You say it as if **you** don't like it." _He better not be giving me this just because he doesn't like it! _I really did not think that was the reason.

"I will never wear it. If I did not like it I would not give it to you." He stated. I could tell that he meant it. "Don't worry. I didn't tell her why I wanted it." I breathed a sigh of relief. I do not know if I can handle her coming in and bringing me presents.

"Thanks for the necklace and not telling her. She was way too excited when she gave you your presents." He grimaced when I said that and leaned back against the glass.

I find myself wondering why he is still here. Why not just escape? No one here could stop him. Well…that might not be entirely true. The aids are trained to stop him. _Still, why stay? _I looked at him as if that would answer the question.

"_He is trapped here by himself alone." _

I heard her say. She sounded sad and a little annoyed. She must have tried to get him to leave before, but he would not go. _What would he do if he left? The world can only accept him in one way._

"_If he left then he could kill." _That was her answer and I could hear the blood lust in her voice. That thought is her wish, for him to kill and do her bidding without question.

_You are such a bitch! I will hate you enough for us both! _I say to her. She laughs and I cringe. I snap back to reality and Sephiroth is giving me a weird look. I wonder what it must have looked like to him to see me talking to her. I give him a small smile and lay down. He does the same a few minutes later.

Before we can go to sleep we hear that sound again. Wood clanking together. In this smaller room we could hear it a lot better and it was coming from the ceiling. "What was that?" Sephiroth sat up and glared up at the ceiling. He shrugged slightly and got up to see if he could find the source.

I got up too and we both searched the tiles to see if one had been moved like before. We did find one. It was near the opposite wall and gave a perfect view of our cell. I still have no idea who would want to spy on us. We heard the sound again and Sephiroth moved closer to the door trying to look closer. The tile was moved over a few inches, but all I could see was darkness there.

"I can see something. It isn't human whatever it is." Sephiroth told me. _Not human?_ I still could not see anything. Then I saw glowing eyes, but only for a second.

"What is that?" I moved closer to him fearing that it might jump out at us. Sephiroth was angry. He was clenching his fist tightly drawing blood.

"If only I could get to it. Then it would not spy on us ever again!" He spat out the words. I grabbed his arm pulling him away. He only resisted for a few seconds.

"It's not hurting us just leave it alone. You can kill it later." I pulled him over to his bed and he sat there shaking for a moment before lying down and facing the glass. I sigh letting out all of the fear and other feelings. I do not want to think about this right now. _I should be asleep right now!_ I go and lie down falling asleep almost instantly.

In my dreams I heard that sound. It echoed all around me and I found myself in the cell. I was looking up at the ceiling at the tiles. There was one moved over about three inches and I could see fingers and those eyes staring back at me. I could not move or look away. There was a voice in the back of my mind laughing at my fears.

_I suppose you're having a good laugh aren't you?_ The sound of wood brought me out of my thoughts and I focused on the tile again. The hand was moving the tile over even more. I could feel the fear rising in me. I wanted to look away from it, but I could not force myself to do so.

The tile was gone and the eyes moved closer out of the darkness. An arm came out and then slowly it dropped down to the floor. A wooden monster stood before me. It was shaped like an oversized human, but it did not seem to be alive. Glowing yellow eyes and a mouth that was almost too big for the face. It smiled and showed its teeth. They looked sharp and there seemed to be too many.

It stood up to its full height and almost reached the ceiling. The arms were too long and the fingers looked more like claws. _How did that thing even manage to get up there?_ All I could do was stare at it and gape. My mind was telling me to move, but my body was not responding.

It leaned forward and put one hand on the glass. It smiled even more and the mouth stretched completely across its face. It licked its lips and pushed on the glass. I could hear it crack and finally my body moved. I could only manage to take a few steps backwards. The glass broke and I put my arms up to defend my face from the spray of glass.

Strangely enough, I did not feel afraid. Things just felt too real. I could feel the glass cutting my arms and legs. I could feel the cold floor. I could even feel a slight vibration from the monsters steps.

I could hear a hissing sound. I assumed that it was from the monster that was more than likely about to kill me. _"You are so useless! You should just die!"_ Jenova shouted at me. I put my arms down and saw the monster raising its arm in a fist to hit me.

I jumped up out of the bed sweating. That dream felt a little too real for me. I look up at the spot where the tile had been moved before and saw that it had been moved back. _Whoever was there must have left._ I was breathing hard trying to calm myself down.

I could feel Jenova in the back of my mind. In a sense she was rolling her eyes at me. Sephiroth appeared to still be asleep. Once I had calmed down I lay back down, but did not go to sleep for a few hours.

Cheery lady came in and gave us our breakfast. I felt tired from constantly waking up during the night. I lazily ate and barely got out of bed. She gave me a worried look before leaving, but said nothing to either of us.

Things went on as normal. I found myself spending a lot of alone time with Hojo and his new aids. By new I mean that they no longer reek of decay or make scraping sounds when they walk. In fact, they are very alive! Their clothes no longer need to hide their faces. I wonder who in their right mind would even take this job?

Throughout the day I could hear them talking to one another on occasion. One of them in particular seemed to disapprove of our treatment. I could not help but feel that there was something very wrong with them though. I felt uneasy around them, especially the only girl among them.

She was always so silent and stared at me constantly. She never spoke to anyone except Hojo. Her eyes were unnerving. They seemed to look right through me. She looked young, but there was wisdom in her eyes that seemed far beyond her. She was a diligent worker and Hojo seemed pleased with her.

Sephiroth did not like any of them. In fact, it seemed that Hojo disliked most of them too. All three of us having the same feeling towards them is strange. I do not like agreeing with Hojo in any way.

A few months later and some of them had mysteriously disappeared. The strange woman and the youngest of the men were still there. Hojo seemed pleased that the other ones were gone now. I get the feeling that he had something to do with their disappearance.

We have another evaluation a month later and they seem happy with our progress. Hojo is strongly advised to eventually have me train. Hojo and the president talked privately after that. They did not get into a yelling match this time and everyone left happy. Well everyone except Sephiroth and me. We were still stuck there in the lab and none of them gives a damn about either of us. If we died it would be like them losing a profit and then they would simply find someone else who fit the criteria and move on.

My dreams were shouting matches with Jenova and finally that man would come in and force her to go away. Some dreams were different. I would not see much, but enough to creep me out.

"She is getting stronger. It is harder to keep her at bay." He told me. He stood there still a black figure in the white expanse. I wondered if I would ever find out who he is and what he looks like.

"How much does she know?" I was still wondering that. He had told me before that she only had access to the events of the game, but that was not reassuring.

"Not much yet. She is slowly breaking the barriers that I have placed in your mind. So far only the knowledge of that game is accessible to her, but not in its entirety." I got the feeling that he was smiling at that. Pleased that she would not be able to get all of the information she sought.

"I hope it will be a long time before she can learn everything." He put his hand on my shoulder reassuringly and nodded. At that moment he suddenly felt very familiar. A long forgotten memory. _If only I could see his face then I might remember who he is._

"Those barriers are strong and she has only managed to break one." He faded as the lights came signaling that I was about to wake up. I still had so many things to ask, but that would have to wait.


	9. Party

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

**Warning: **This chapter has an attempted rape scene. (thought I would never write that!) You have been warned!

Ch. 9 Party

After over a year of the usual, I learned that Sephiroth is leaving. He is to enter into military training. I felt sad. The only other person there was leaving and I would be left alone with Hojo. I am not looking forward to that.

Somehow, I managed to lose my things again! The box that the cheery lady gave me had been taken away and now she just brings them by when I need them. No more underwear...and now I find myself in need of a bra. I am not allowed to have one. It apparently complicates things for Hojo. At least that is how she explained it to me.

Hojo came and got us and instead of taking us to the lab as per usual, we were going all the way up to the top floor. Once we reached the presidents office, Sephiroth was told to stand in the middle of the room and Hojo and I stood against the back wall.

There were generals and executives there lined up on both sides of the room around Sephiroth. The executives looked bored. They have seen him before. The generals on the other hand have only heard rumors. They have never seen what he could do. At least that is my guess by their reactions to him.

There were also a few Turks there (two at the entrance and two behind the president) and a few outside. They did not seem particularly interested either. Sephiroth did not seem to mind all of this attention. He stood there with his eyes closed calmly waiting.

"I'm sure that you all know why you are here. It's about time that the boy performs for the company." He looked at Sephiroth. "You will leave in three months for Junon to begin your training." He sounded very proud as he spoke. No one moved and the president continued with his speech, but we hardly listened. Some of it was technicalities and a bunch of crap we did not care about. When he was finished, the execs left and the generals went on to talk with Sephiroth.

Scarlet stayed and spoke to the generals as well. She seemed very enthusiastic to see them. She was practically flirting with every one of them. She is disgusting. Finally, Sephiroth came over to us and stood next to me. He looked annoyed and was frowning. He is definitely ready to leave now.

The generals came over to Hojo congratulating him and asking him various questions. Some of them mentioned me. A few looked at me too hard for comfort. Hojo just smiled and politely answered all of their questions. He was actually being extra careful around them. His eye was twitching just a bit.

"You should bring her to the party as well, Hojo. I am sure the others would be interested in meeting her as well as the boy. We would also like to see a full demonstration of his power. Whenever you can arrange it is fine." The last general said. He shook hands with Hojo and then walked away smiling at me. That is just a little bit creepy. We leave and thankfully, we do not see any of them again on the way down. Once returned to our cell cheery lady comes a bit late and brings us our food.

"When you're finished just come with me. I have something else for you two. It's for the party tomorrow." She said as she sat down the trays. She looked very cheery today. We finished our food and went to her office. She had a suit and a dress hanging on the back of her door.

"These are for you. It's a formal party so you'll have to have something nice to wear." She smiled and handed them over to us. We both frowned at them. I hate dresses and I am sure Sephiroth hates the suit too. "Why don't you try them on?" We both glared at her, but she was already forcing our clothes off and making us change. Sephiroth was done first. He never stopped frowning. I thought it looked cute. She giggled and told him he looked cute. I would not tell him that.

Then she did me and I fought back. She finally got the dress on and zipped up. I went and looked in the mirror and frowned. This is the third time I have actually taken the time to look in the mirror. The dress she picked for me is blood red. I like the color, but I am not so sure about the dress. It is a strapless dress. There are flowers along the top running down one side to the split. Then she handed me some dress shoes to go with it.

"Here these go with it." She hands me a pair of white gloves that go to my elbows. I put them on and look in the mirror again. I guess it is not so bad other than the fact that I have no underwear on.

"You look so pretty. Well...that is it so you two had better go back. Here." She handed us our lab clothes and pushed us out towards the door. She escorted us to our cell and advised us to change so we do not ruin our nice clothes. Then she shut the door and left.

I immediately took the dress off and hurriedly put the lab clothes back on. I carefully put it on the ground and placed the gloves on top of it. I put the shoes next to it. Sephiroth was doing the same. He was out of his suit faster than I could unzip myself. He really hates that thing.

"You looked pretty in that." He whispered. I was almost sure that I had imagined him saying it.

"You think so?" He nodded. "I don't like it. Dresses make me feel silly." We both sat down in our usual spots and went to sleep. Tomorrow we would have to deal with the party and all that that entails. Many people talking all at once, most of them we probably will not know or care to know.

I hope that I will be able to find a nice spot away from most of the people. I do not like crowds. Sephiroth seemed to be dreading it as well. The party was for him...in a way. It was really just a way for everyone to see him. I am sure that most of the people there will, at least know his name.

The party was in the evening and we arrived fashionably late. I tried to stay close to Sephiroth. There are many people here, even more that I had expected. Hojo lead the way as if he knew where he wanted to go. We followed like dogs. We did not really care. We just did not want to be in the middle of the crowd. The room was big enough to accommodate around five hundred people and there was a stage.

On the left and right of the stage, there were two rooms. The rooms on the right were empty and the band that was currently playing on stage was using the ones on the left. We were heading towards the stage and from there we could see the entire room. There was a balcony to the left of the stage and large windows that looked out over the city, not that it is a pretty sight.

The president and all of the people from the day before were standing by the balcony entrance and Hojo was making his way over to them dragging us along. Once there we found a very drunk Scarlet flirting with anything and everything. Most of them were trying very hard to ignore her.

"You're so stiff! Come on. There is an empty room over there. I'll loosen you up." She was saying to the plant in front of her. Apparently, the 'plant' says something she does not like and she attempts to slap it. She only succeeds in knocking herself over and falls face first on the floor not even spilling her drink. She gets up and empties her glass. Then she looks at it and frowns.

"What do I have to do to get another beer over here?" I do not think she needs anymore. How long has she been here? The party did not start that long ago. Some idiot refills her beer and she immediately starts flirting with him. He suddenly realizes what he has done and tries to make a very quick escape as she tries to kiss him.

I am trying my hardest not to laugh. I could not hope for anything better. She is making a fool out of herself. I doubt that she will remember it in the morning, but if she does, I hope she feels like an idiot. Sephiroth just frowns along with everyone else. Hojo talks to the group and me and Sephiroth inch our way to the balcony. They do not even notice that we are gone. There are a few other people out there too, but not enough to bother us.

Sephiroth, however, is slightly bothered by the fact that there are some first class soldiers out there staring at me. He puts his arm around me and glares at them. I just keep looking out at the city. It is not exactly what I would call a great view, but it is better than the view in the party. A drunk Scarlet and many other people I do not care about.

Hojo came out to get us. He must have finally noticed that we were gone. He only came after Sephiroth so I have to stay there by myself. There were three first class soldiers on the balcony with me. They finally got the nerve to come and talk to me now that Sephiroth was gone.

"Hello there. You know you shouldn't be out here all by yourself." I heard one of them say. I turned around and a tall brown haired, green-eyed boy was staring down at me. Behind him stood a blonde, blue-eyed boy, and a red head. They were all about the same height.

They were the ones Sephiroth was glaring down and if he comes back anytime soon they will be in big trouble. I know I can handle one of them on my own, but I am not tough enough to take down all three. The brunette smiled and offered his hand. I take a step back. _I am not touching you!_ "What's the matter? Are you shy?" He turns around and looks at his friends.

"Well...I'm sure we can fix that." He said as he turned around. He was grinning and his friends were giggling. Before I could do anything, he grabbed my arm. I pulled back, but it did not do much.

"Leave me alone!" I shouted at them. I kept fighting, but it was no use. There were Turks positioned around the room and one on the balcony, but none of them paid any attention to me.

"You're a feisty one aren't you?" They laughed, but it was short lived. Hojo and Sephiroth returned and both of them looked mad.

"Let go of her or you may regret it." Hojo said calmly. The man did not though and Sephiroth moved forward and slapped his arm away. The brunette person cried out in pain and clutched his arm. "I told you." Hojo came over to me and pulled me away from them.

"Come, boy!" He commanded and Sephiroth reluctantly obeyed. He came over to me and took my arm gently guiding me to the door. He looked pissed. Out on the balcony the blonde and red head were helping their friend who was almost crying.

"Are you ok?" I nodded. Sephiroth surprised me. _Why did he do that? He broke his arm! _He hugged me slightly and then held my hand dragging me along with him. We went over to the stage and stayed there most of the time. Hojo did not want to take any chances. Sephiroth just continued with where he left off. Glaring down any guy who even glanced at me. _He's being awfully protective of me for some reason._

"Why are you doing this?" I had to know. I waited almost an hour before asking him that. I had to gather the nerve. He did not answer me right off. I had expected him to stay silent, but he eventually did answer me.

"You're my friend." He whispered. Strange words to hear from him. For the past year, he has been friendly to me, but hearing him say that is completely different. He was still looking away, but his expression had changed. He looked at me briefly and his eyes looked softer. Not the usual armor-piercing look he used to have.

"Friend?" He nodded. I just could not believe it.

The president came on stage demanding silence. It took a minute, but soon the roar of a few hundred people dwindled down to a few coughs. He waited a few seconds trying to be dramatic and then began talking. Something no one really cared about, but who would tell him that?

"You all know why we are here. Mostly it is an excuse not to work, but it has also to meet the new recruits. Of course, there is a certain someone I know you are all dying to see." He makes a hand motion towards Hojo and as told, he grabs Sephiroth and pushes him towards the stage.

Sephiroth refuses to leg go of me, but he is finally coaxed into doing so. I am not glad about it. As Sephiroth climbs the steps and stands by the president, everyone claps. "We are hoping to see extraordinary things from this young man!" He puts his hand over the microphone and says something to Sephiroth. He frowns slightly, but not enough for everyone else to notice.

Someone taps me on the shoulder and I turn around to find the three men from before. The brunette looks pissed and he is wearing a makeshift cast now. Guess he came back for revenge. Now that his arm is broken I can totally take him on, but then there are the other two.

"You didn't think we'd just go away!" He grabbed me with his good arm and dragged me away towards the right of the stage and the empty rooms. His friends helped him a great deal. The blonde covered my mouth and grabbed my other arm and the red head was waiting for us by the door furthest from the stage.

I look around and everyone's attention is diverted to the stage. There is not a Turk to be seen. I struggle, but it does not do me much good. My screams are muffled and the president will not stop talking long enough for anyone to really hear me. They take me in the room and the blonde shuts the door. It is completely dark and they throw me on the floor.

I land on my side and one of them kicks me. They must have good eyes because I can hardly see anything. One of them grabs me and I can just tell that it is the blonde. My eyes have adjusted to the darkness and I can make out the two men, but not much else.

I can clearly see the cast on the brunette's arm and the blonde's hair. There is a small amount of light coming in through the cracks of the door to illuminate the room. I attempt to back away, but the blonde is fast. He grabs me and holds me down while the brunette sits on me. "This will hurt, but I'll take my time."

He grabs the dress and starts ripping it. He is laughing and I struggle cursing at them. "Fucking idiots! You WILL pay for this!" I say this very loud. It is a shame no one can hear me over the music that has started back up.

"She's got a mouth on her doesn't she?" The blonde said mockingly. The brunette only laughed more and finished ripping my dress. Now I am pissed off at Hojo. The fact that I am not wearing underwear is not helping me one bit. "Not modest either." The brunette begins fondling me with his good hand and his friend presses down harder as I struggle against them.

He squeezes my breast wanting me to scream, but I do not. They laugh and the brunette gets up so he can take off his pants. I bet that is hard for him. The blonde presses down on my arms harder and I wince. _It looks like he isn't very modest either. _Once he moves closer, I can see that he is not wearing underwear either. Probably just to make things go faster. His friend is ready and I shudder at what I know is coming. I could struggle all I want, but things would not change.

"Don't worry. This will only hurt a little." He says confidently. He hits me in the face with his cast giving me a nice cut on my cheek. I do not cry, but a single tear falls down my cheek. He decides to play a round a bit more before raping me. He starts kissing my neck working his way down. I barely feel any of it though. After so many physicals from Hojo, I have essentially become numb. He is not pleased when I do not react. I do, however, want to puke.

He sits up looking at me frustrated. He frowns. The blonde leans forward looking at my face. "You should be nice now. If you are then I might go easy on you." _GROSS!_ He smiles and the brunette laughs.

The brunette leans forward and kisses me. I cannot scream, but I can bite him. I bite his lip as hard as I can and he jerks away. He sits up and curses covering his mouth. I get a nice punch to the gut with his cast and I groan. More tears come and he decides to do more damage. He reaches for his pants and pulls out a knife holding it over my chest.

"You're not making this fun at all. If only you and that boy had been nicer...we wouldn't have to resort to violence." The brunette said. He sliced open my lip to match his and decided it was time to get it over with. He spread my legs out and laughed. Before he could do anything, the door swung open and before I knew it, he was thrown off me.

A Turk pulled the blonde away and another one was helping me up. It was hard to tell what was going on. I was bleeding and wearing some Turks jacket; Hojo was shouting, and I could not see Sephiroth at all. I was relieved when he put his hand on my shoulder. Then I looked at his hands. There was blood all over them and after looking at him more closely, I realized that there was blood all over him.

"What happened?" I stared at him gaping. He removed his hands and looked himself over as if he did not know exactly where all of the blood had come from. We both looked back towards the back of the room and there was the brunette. He had quite literally ripped him to shreds. A Turk was detaining the blonde and he was pleading. He definitely did not want to end up like his friend...or friends.

The red head was by the door lying on the ground dead. Sephiroth had gotten to him first and then come in. "You killed them." I whispered. He did not seem to care. In fact, he looked proud of that. He nodded answering me. He looked angry and when Hojo came over to us and touched my shoulder, he had growled at him.

"This will never happen again." He whispered to me. He sounded so mad and sure of that. "I won't let it." He added that as if I did not believe him. He stayed close to me and the party had ended very abruptly. Most of the people had left, but the Generals and other recruits had stayed. We approached them and they talked to Hojo for a moment before letting us leave.

"Well...it seems that we have our demonstration. They were both first class soldiers." He leaned forward looking at me. "I do hope that you are alright." I did not answer. Sephiroth would not have let me anyway. He was standing in between me and everyone else. We were cleaned up when we reached the lab and I was forced into a mako bath. I know it would help, but I did not want to be in there.

When I was back in the cell, I actually sat on the bed. I lie down and cover up completely so no one could see me. While it was happening, I had not felt anything. Now all of the emotions flooded in at once. I had only been angry and I knew there was nothing I could do to stop it. Now all of the things that could have happened were going through my mind.

_What if no one had come to help me? What would have happened after they were finished raping me? Is that how I would have died?_

There were so many questions going through my head all at once and all I could do was cry. I could faintly hear Sephiroth beside me trying to comfort me, but it was not helping. Cheery lady came in and saw what was going on. She told Sephiroth to leave me alone for a little while. 'I needed space especially from him.' She told him. I do not know if he understood what she had meant by that.

"Here I left your food by the bed, honey. When you want it...it'll be there." She said and then left. She did not wait outside as she usually did. She did come back a few hours later to check on us. I had not moved from the bed and the food sat on the floor untouched. "Just so you know. The third one was punished a while ago. He won't bother you ever again." She left hesitantly, but also took our trays. Sephiroth had not eaten his either.

"I don't really know how you feel right now. I do know that I don't want you to cry." Sephiroth said this after a long silence. I did not move, but I knew he was sitting beside my bed. He carefully put his hand on my shoulder. "I promise that won't happen again. I'll protect you."

He is trying hard to make me feel better. It sounds strange to hear him saying those things. Another strange thing is his tone of voice. He sounds concerned. Usually he sounds detached, but he also did not have much to say. I do not understand why he is doing any of this.

"Please, just leave me alone." I sniffed and tried to cover up more while pushing his hand away. He eventually went over to his bed and sat down. He left me alone and we went to sleep.

I woke up first the next day. I got up wrapping the cover around me. It felt cold today for some reason. Sephiroth was sitting on his bed sleeping and woke up a few minutes later. He stared at me for a while, but did not say anything.

"I'm sorry." He did not react when I said it. He just asked why. "I just needed to be alone for a little bit...well as alone as I could get in here..." We sat there in silence before finally going to sleep.

Hojo was a bit gentler with me for the next week. Sephiroth rather forced him to do that. He made things very difficult for Hojo and especially for his aids. They were not allowed to touch me at all. In a way, it was annoying, but in another way, it was nice. Hojo just thought that it was annoying. Sephiroth was suddenly standing up to Hojo. He hated it. Things took twice as long because he had to deal with Sephiroth.

"Boy!" Sephiroth stood in front of me and he would not let Hojo by. Hojo wanted to do a physical exam, but Sephiroth did not want to let him. I did not say a word. I did not want him to touch me at all at the moment. "Move aside!" Sephiroth growled and held his ground. Hojo eventually gave up and sent us back downstairs. "What a nuisance." He said before leaving us.

"Did you really have to do all of that?" We were sitting across from each other. He looked up, but did not answer. "Are you going to do this everyday?" I asked laughing.

"Probably not. I just want you to feel safe." The way he said it made it sound like he needed to know I was safe. It may have affected him more than he is letting on. He did rip a guy apart and choke another to death. "I'll lay off a little if it's too much." He looked at me waiting for an answer.

"It's a bit much, but it's fun to see you annoy Hojo. He deserves it." I laughed a little and I think he did too, but that could be my imagination.


	10. Things from a different view

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 10 Things from a different view

**Part 1:** Boy meets girl

Sephiroth sits contently in the specimen chamber listening to the noises of the monsters around him. Most of the time he sleeps and thinks. In the back of his mind a voice. A nagging voice telling him to do this or that, but what can you do in a cage?

"_You could easily leave this place my son. We could rule over these pathetic mortals and you would be free to do as you please."_ The familiar voice sang in his head. He ignored her. Her words mean nothing in the cold interior of the Shinra building. Here her voice is faint. A distant memory of a soft touch that only appears soft.

He always thought that this voice was his mother. The way she spoke to him made it seem so. At first she had only consoled him when he felt sad or hurt in some way. In this place he learned to lose those feelings. She had taught him that.

_"If you do not abandon your emotions then they will destroy you."_

Comforting words when he truly did feel that that was the case. The emotions that he had held inside himself for so long were beginning to flood out in the form of destruction. He did not care if he killed a staff member, or better yet, Hojo. He was beyond the point of caring.

Her ever-present guidance throughout his life was the only sort of love that he knew. The woman that Hojo appointed as his caretaker was nice, but not someone he could call mother. She tried hard to help him when he felt lonely, but he did not want her.

The voice was soothing and comforting to him. She grew louder in his dreams and seemed to be the only solace in a world that was abysmal in nature.

Years passed and the voice grew louder, soothing, but all the more vile at the same time. At first she only called him son and told him things of comfort. Then she began to command him. Tell him things that he just could not or would not do. There was an invisible barrier that kept him where he sat everyday.

He knew that now he was stronger and could easily handle an escape attempt and probably never receive a single scratch. The voice that he came to know as Jenova told him so.

Today he could hear commotion on the floor above. He listened carefully curious about the sounds he heard. _What is going on up there?_ He listened and gathered that someone new was in the lab. After several hours Hojo arrived with a few aids that were holding an unconscious girl about his age between them.

He quietly sat with his head down, but curious turned his head enough to see what was going on without being noticed. He watched from under his hair as they sat the girl down carefully as ordered by Hojo. _Why are they putting her in here with me?_

They left closing the door and headed back up to the elevator. Sephiroth chose not to move seeing as Hojo has not left yet. He was standing close to the chamber watching them. Sephiroth stared at the floor feeling his oppressive presence. When he left he slowly lifted his head and looked over at the girl. She would be out for a while.

_There is plenty of time to have a closer look at her._ Sephiroth thought, but did not move. He could feel Jenova moving in his mind, coming forward to see this new person. He also felt her instant hatred. He pushed her back feeling irritated by her.

For a while he only stared. He wanted to get up, but something held him back. He was curious about her and about what Hojo wanted her for. He finally stood up and went to sit by her to get a closer look. She looked younger than him, but not by much.

Brown hair that went to her waist, the familiar lab clothes that Hojo gave every person that came through here, and a burn mark on her neck. He noticed the tattoo on her arm. He looked at his own noting the similarities. _So he is placing her in the same project as me. I wonder what that means?_

She moaned in her sleep and flinched a few times. He froze as she did that thinking at first that she might wake up. When she did not he placed a hand on her forehead hoping that would calm her dreams. In the back of his mind Jenova spoke of her.

_"Another weakling. Don't waste your time on her. She is just like them."_ He ignores her feeling the need to touch another person. Being alone in a cage makes one long for any kind of companionship. He strokes her forehead to calm her and ignores the voice that shuns her presence.

He could feel her aura. It felt soft as it touched his darker one. She flinched as he reached out wanting to know more about her without having to speak to her. He disliked talking in general and would not speak unless he felt comfortable doing so. He found himself being pulled back by Jenova, who was now shouting at him. She was annoying him with her jealousy.

"You want all of my attention...is that it?" He felt her fade away back into the back of his mind and turned his attention back to the girl. "You will end up like me. A lab rat for _him_ to play with." He said to the sleeping girl.

He knew that Hojo had a special reason for placing her in there with him. He knew that Hojo wanted him to have time to get use to her. She could be here for a long time, but Sephiroth did not think so. She looked so weak to him he thought that Hojo would end up killing her in a short time.

He moved back over to sit down and think. He still had many questions. Some were for Jenova. Some he knew would more than likely never be answered. He wanted to know about the girl. He felt curious just by the fact that she was even in the room with him.

_"She is fragile. You would only break her."_ Jenova told him. He knew that if he touched her he would have to be careful. The difference in strength was enormous. An attempt to touch her might break something. He had tried hard before when he touched her. He had been afraid at the time that he would wake her. He had not even thought that he could easily hurt her.

When she did wake he watched her from behind his hair. She looked at him and seemed to somehow recognize him. Then she looked away examining all of the things around them. What really caught his attention was when she started humming.

He had never heard a song before. He knew about them from studies that he had done, but he knew no songs. He had never even tried to sing anything himself. He liked the song she hummed. It sounded pretty and he wondered if there might be any words to it.

Without realizing it he had lifted his head up and was staring at her. She realized this and stopped humming to look at him. For a moment neither of them moved. Sephiroth looked behind her and saw a man standing by the elevator. He was only there for a second. The man was only a black figure with an oppressive aura around him. _Was that my imagination?_

She noticed what he did and he put his head down. He wondered who it was and why they were standing there watching them. The only features that he had seen were the eyes.

_His eyes. He was looking at her._ _Red eyes full of hate and ill intent._ _Could he want to harm her?_ Sephiroth could not think of a reason why. He decided to think about it later and get some rest. Tomorrow would be an interesting day having someone to share the pain with.

**Part 2:** Puppet

From the top of the shinra building you could see everything. Though everything includes a fog laden city with dark clouds overhead. A strange looking man stood there watching the city quietly. He was tall and lanky. His face resembles that of a woman more than a man, but with bandages covering his mouth and nose who knows what lies underneath.

He wore a tight-fitting body suit that was ripped at the collar. The bandages continued giving a hint that they might cover his entire body. On his hands blades were attached to his fingers. He kneeled down and leaned over the ledge looking into the office below.

A fat man sat in a chair looking through a pile of papers. There were several guards there as well and he knew they were called Turks. He was not concerned with them though. "I suppose I should check on him." He said to himself. He turned around and looked at the hole in the roof. It was small, only big enough for a child to fit through.

He closed his eyes and in his mind pictured his little creation. A puppet that he had made himself and trapped a soul inside. This one was small and appeared to be a mere child. After some concentration he could see and hear everything his puppet could. He was still on his way down to the laboratory floor.

He watched as the puppet made his way there and moved a tile over a few inches so he could have a look inside the room. There were two people in there. A boy and a girl about the same age. _There you are._ He thought to himself.

He watched them talk for a while and then told the puppet to return. The puppet stopped suddenly when they heard him. Both of them found him and he chose not to move. The boy seemed angry to have someone spying on them. The girl had forced him to sit down. After waiting a few minutes he left trying very hard to be quiet so that no one else would notice him.

After arriving back on the roof he went to his master and kneeled before him. "That was very close." He waved the puppet off and watched it return into the white mist. He followed more slowly. He was sure that they needed a different way to keep an eye on her.

In the open white expanse he walked briskly not wanting to stay for too long. He had been warned about that. Stay too long and you might never leave. After a few minutes he found himself surrounded by the familiar darkness of The Abyss. He was greeted by a female that he considered a nuisance.

She had short hair and was considered the slut among their group. Siren was her name he remembered. She looked much younger than she was. He knew that she was one of the first to join the group. She carried a whip with her and always had a smile on her face. "Well, Enshii, how did it go?" She said. He chose not to respond and headed to where he knew their leader was.

Siren followed him and they eventually found him standing where he always stood. In the Abyss there is an orb that he has labeled the beginning and end of everything. He never leaves it. He was holding a child up by the neck. They stopped and watched the show knowing what he was about to do.

The boy was about ten and he was pleading for his life. He held him up higher out to the orb. White mist flowed from the boys body and he cried out in pain. Blood came from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Something was leaving his body. His cries stopped and turned into sobbing as the mist faded and joined with the orb behind him.

He let go of the boy and turned around to face them. "You've returned." They bowed and both looked at the child lying on the ground behind him and shivered.

"Scythe, I have come to the conclusion that it would be more beneficial for us if someone stayed there to watch her." Enshii told him. He watched as Scythe turned around with an evil grin on his face motioning for someone in the darkness to come and clean up the mess.

A woman came forward holding a sword smiling gleefully. She was more than happy to get rid of the little pest. She was wearing a light blue body suit. There was blood caked on it and everyone wondered if she would ever clean it off. She plunged the sword into his chest and lifted him off the ground watching as he slid down the blade a few inches. She left holding him up in the air and almost skipped away.

"Glaed seems all too happy to be here." Siren said. Everyone ignored her and Scythe turned to Enshii.

"You think that would be 'beneficial'?" Enshii nodded. That way he could simply use a puppet to relay messages. It would be much easier for him. "I see. Siren, you do it." He commanded.

"What?!" She exclaimed. _Then I'll be stuck on that hell hole away from my Scythe! _She glared at Enshii who was smirking at her and began to protest. "Why me? I don't want to go to that hell hole of a world!"_  
_

Scythe merely raised a hand to quiet her. They could feel his aura flaring out at them. Instantly they both backed away fearing that he might kill them. He was known to be a very strong sorcerer and was known to have a very short temper. Usually no one back talked him.

"Never mind! I'm going!" _ I suppose I do deserve it after earlier._ Siren turned on her heel and made her way to Gaia cringing the whole time. Enshii left as well feeling the need to get away from Scythe.

Siren found herself standing before Shinra building hesitant to go in. She knew what Scythe would do to her if she disobeyed him. She shivered at the thought. She slowly walked in and went to the reception desk. "I would like to apply for a job." She said smiling.

Author: You can just hear the sinister music in the background can't you?

I drew a pic of Lilia with her detached shadow. I have made a link to it on my profile page. Eventually I will have pics of Scythe, Glaed, Siren, and Enshii as well.

Thanks to:

ZR388, dantesdarkqueen, and DragonessWarrior (your advice was helpful!) for the lovely reviews. It's always good to hear that someone likes my story.


	11. Nighttime stroll

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 11 Nighttime Stroll

A month after the party I was feeling a lot better and less annoyed with Sephiroth. I had finally gotten over the whole experience. Hojo had finally given up. Sephiroth would not allow them to touch me and that is how it went. I finally told him to stop though when it became unnecessary.

Cheery lady (excuse me "Sheila") brought us our dinner as usual and left, but forgot one crucial thing. She forgot to close the door. I seem to be the only one who is excited about this in the least. Sephiroth sits there like it is nothing.

After a few hours of coaxing I finally seemed to be getting somewhere. There is no way that I can just sit in here when that door is wide open and asking me to leave. The only problem is I would feel bad if I left him in there.

"Come on, Sephiroth! It's open." He glances over at the open door and does nothing. _He is hopeless._

"If we leave there will be consequences." He told me. I ignored him and grabbed his arms attempting to pull him up. He barely had to resist to stop me.

"That's not fair!" I pull harder and he gives up. I fall backwards and he stands over me frowning. "Come on. I don't want to go by myself." I say pleading. He offers a hand to help me up and just to spite him I pull him down instead. I know he could have caught himself, but for whatever reason he chooses not to.

"Was that fair?" He said. I nod and smile. He sighs, gets up, and again offers to help me up. This time I take it.

"That's what you get for making me fall." I stopped realizing that we were playing around too much. _I have to stop doing that._ He is already waiting for me outside of the chamber.

"So where will we go?" I came out and took his hand. I figured it would be safer that way. He did not seem to mind or notice it much.

I ended up leading us downstairs a few floors before deciding that it would be safe for us to look around a bit. The floor looked mostly empty and I was sure that we could avoid a few people. We are that lucky!

(I am waiting for someone to come and hunt us down and drag us back to the lab to be scolded by Hojo…or something to that effect. I also get the feeling that Jenova is watching all of this feeling very entertained.)

We have managed to make it to floor sixty-two without being seen. Most of the lights are off and it looks as if no one is here, but we can hear someone pacing. On the far left of the room in a cubicle labeled "Mayor" we can hear someone mumbling. Sephiroth has the better hearing so I tell him to listen in.

He leans carefully against the wall to listen and closes his eyes. I wait around the corner for him to finish. After listening for a few minutes we go somewhere else to talk. "So what did you hear?"

"He was talking on the phone. Someone must be causing some trouble in one of the sectors. He said that there was a rebel group that had stationed themselves in the slums somewhere." Sephiroth was interested in this. More than I had expected anyway. I found it somewhat interesting.

_It could be the beginnings of something like Avalanche. _I think that sounds pretty good. A rebel group causing trouble for Shinra and the mayor is talking about it. _The mayor never seemed to have much power so why does he care?_

We explored that floor a little longer hoping to hear some more, but he left shortly after yelling and then hanging up the phone. We hid behind his cubicle until we were sure that he was gone. Sephiroth was about ready to go back and he was sure to let me know. "It's only been thirty minutes!" I dragged him back over to the stairs and we went down to the cafeteria on the fiftieth floor.

It was weird in there at night. We looked at the clock and it said nine o'clock. We had left the sixty-seventh floor at eight thirty and since there were no guards no one would know we were gone for hours. _We could be long gone before they knew it, but Sephiroth would never go for that._

Mainly we just went here because I knew there was a clock. He also decided to argue about what we were doing. "We should go back."

"We could leave and they would be hours behind us." I said sitting down at a table. If we were going to argue about this I was going to sit down.

"We'd get caught. It's inevitable." He said sounding so final about the whole thing. He sat down too, but made sure to sit across from me. He folded his arms on the table and looked down at them.

"No it isn't." I said shaking my head for emphasis. I reached over the table and rested my hand on his. "Not if you don't want it to be."

He sighed and looked me in the eyes. I felt that piercing feeling again. Like he could see right trough me. There was also another feeling there. I felt weak and if I had been standing I am sure I would have fallen flat on my face. (Unless he was nice enough to catch me.)

He looked away and I realized that I had been squeezing his hand. I had also been holding my breath as if that were helpful. "Alright. Lets keep going." He got up and came around the table to help me up. I smiled at him glad that he was at least trying.

I found myself blushing as he led me back to the stairs. I looked away from him hoping that he would not see that. I also felt Jenova in my mind watching. She seemed amused by this, but chose to stay as the silent observer.

We had decided to explore every floor on the way down unless there were too many people there. After going down a few more floors we came out and realized that someone else was sneaking around as well. Sephiroth pulled me closer to him putting an arm around my waist.

"Set the bomb there and then we'll go up to set the next one." One of them said. _They must be the rebels the mayor was talking about._

"What are we going to do?" I whispered. Sephiroth did not answer. We could easily see the other charges that they had placed at key points in the room. There were a total of four and they were seeting the fifth charge. _They intend to bring the whole building down._ They do not have a timer and I suppose that they will be remote detonated.

"This will show those Shinra dogs!" Another said after the charge was armed. He got a pat on the back from his comrade.

"She'd be proud of you." They pick up their packs and came towards us. When they come into the light I realized that I have seen them before!

Back in Corel they had lived near the first cheery lady (whose name I never knew). The one on the left was the burly guy that had given me up to them. _I wonder what happened to make them come here to do this? I still haven't forgiven you yet!_

Sephiroth watched and noticed that they were getting a bit too close to us. If we did not move then they might see us. Unfortunately they did see us. Burly bastard has good eyes apparently. Sephiroth started to push me behind him getting ready to attack if need be.

"Hey! I've seen you before. It's been a few years." He said. Sephiroth stopped and I glared at him letting him know that I did not appreciate how he had treated me before. He noticed and strangely enough apologized.

"I'm sorry about what I did. I just thought that if we gave them someone then they might leave us in peace for a while. I was wrong." He paused getting a faraway look in his eyes. "They cut off our energy supply until they finished the mako reactor. When it went online a few months later the people begged like dogs for forgiveness." He looked down as he spoke and sounded sad. He was angry with Shinra for all that they had done to him and his town. He was clenching his fists and his whole body was shaking.

"They decided to punish Arna and her daughter after you left for 'hiding you'." The other one said. I looked at him temporarily confused. I had never known her name. For some reason I never caught that. Then I looked away feeling bad for them. "We really are sorry."

After all of the things Hojo has done (and will do) I cannot help but hate them for letting things like this happen. Greedy people do not make good people. The whole time Sephiroth never moved. If they had tried anything I am sure he would have kill them.

"You two should get out before the blast goes off. We should be done in about thirty minutes and we've got that long to get out. If we don't then we don't." The other one said. They left and we stood there thinking about what we should do.

"Well?" I looked at Sephiroth waiting for an answer. He looked over my shoulder and sighed. He put both hands up and motioned for me to do the same. "What?"

"It looks like you two have been caught!" There was a Turk standing behind me. I whirled around and backed up seeing the gun in his hand. "I heard everything so they won't get to finish the job." He said. He phoned the other Turks and escorted us at gunpoint back up to the sixty-seventh floor. We got to ride in the elevator this time.

After putting us back in the chamber and closing the door he left talking on the phone. _I wonder what they'll do to them?_ We sat down on the bed and I could not help thinking about them. I knew what was going to happen to them.

The Turks would kill them and it would be as if this all never happened. I am sure that they would disarm all of the bombs before they could go off and everything would be fine. No one would get any justice.

Sephiroth had leaned me against him and he did not try to say any words of comfort. He knew as well as I did that they would die now. Cheery lady came in acting frantic. She came over to the door and opened it fumbling with the card.

"What were you two thinking? Why did you go out alone?" She looked angry as if she did not expect that to happen. I could hear the worry in her voice. I glared at her and Sephiroth looked away. Neither of us was in the mood to deal with her. "What if something had happened? It's after midnight and you two should be in bed!"

"That's enough!" Someone said from the doorway. Hojo stood there with his arms crossed glaring at us all. "Leave." He told her. She got up instantly and left the room. Hojo kneeled down right in front of Sephiroth.

Sephiroth looked away from him and squeezed me a little. "Tell me…now why did you leave this room?" He shivered, but did not answer. Hojo looked at me and I glared back. _I'm not answering you._

He looked back at Sephiroth. "Let me guess. It was her idea." Neither of us moved. _Duh! _"Maybe she is a bad influence on you. I suppose I could…."

"No…." Sephiroth said shaking his head slightly. He was looking down so no one could see his face. Even I knew what Hojo was about to say. "The door was left open. It was just…."

"For fun." I finished for him. They both looked at me. "Do you have any idea how boring it is in here?"

Hojo laughed and stood up. Sephiroth was surprised that I had even spoken to him. I had promised myself that I would not do that unless I absolutely had to. "Fun." He looked at us from the doorway. "I suppose…I shall have to find something to occupy your time."

He left us and we both let out a sigh. After a few seconds I realized that we had not moved. Hojo had seen us like that! He had seen him holding me. _I hope he doesn't get the wrong impression from that._

"Why did you say that?" Sephiroth asked me.

"What were you going to say?" He did not answer and I crossed my arms. "I thought so." I said smiling at him. "Lets go to sleep."

**Author:** Never leave the door open. I won't hesitate to leave! There are going to be a few of these before Sephiroth actually leaves for training. Three to be exact counting this one. I have a pic of Glaed up now!


	12. My shadow the mischievous

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 12 My shadow the mischievous

The first thing Hojo decided to do was put a chip in me. This way he would be able to track me wherever I go. No idea if he is going to do the same to Sephiroth, but I suppose there is not really a need to do that. He would not run away. Hojo also decided to do this in the most painful fashion. This also allowed me to know where he was putting it. He put it in the back of my neck. Unfortunately this means that trying to get rid of it could be hazardous to my health.

I now regret saying anything to Hojo after Sheila left the door open. My idea of fun is doing anything other than what he has decided to do now. He has a new machine and it has not been tested yet. He has decided that I am going to be the guinea pig. Sephiroth was not too happy with that.

Hojo has not described exactly what this thing does though. That worrys me. It looks like a cat scan machine. He lays me down in it (clothes on thankfully) and straps me down. Purple and Green lights glow inside it and after a few seconds it makes a whirring sound. Slowly I am moved inside and I am glad that I am not clostrophobic. I can barely see Sephiroth watching closeby. He does not look pleased.

Hojo is on the other side of me looking too happy. I stop moving and the light starts dancing around the metal like lightning. I can feel the heat from it and it is getting hotter. The faster it moves the hotter it gets and it starts to look like a net that is moving closer to me! I do not even want to know what that might do to me.

It feels like this is taking forever, but it has only been a few minutes. The net gets closer and I flinch when it touches me. Surprisingly it did not hurt, or burn me like I was expecting. I could feel the energy in it and it stopped halfway through my body. _I guess this isn't so bad._

Without warning a huge pulse went through it and I screamed. _Now it hurts!_ To me it feels like being shocked while being stabbed with needles. I struggle, but that does not seem to help me. It actually makes things worse. My whole body screams in pain and since I am making it worse I scream even louder. I stop screaming long enough to take a breath and I realize that I cannot see anything. The world looks white whether my eyes are open or closed. _Great! Now I'm blind!_

The pain intensifies and I can faintly hear someone struggling outside the machine. Suddenly it stops and shuts off. I hear gears grinding and notice I am being pulled out by Sephiroth. "Are you ok?" He whispers. I nod weakly and he unstraps me and helps me up. He glared at Hojo who was lying on the ground in pain. I really had to guess that since I still cannot see anything.

"I can't see." I said rubbing my eyes. "What happened?" Sephiroth also has to help me stand. The experience has left me a bit off balance. I think that I am also leaning against the machine to keep from falling over. I also notice that I shouted what I said. It must have affected my hearing because I have to ask them tp speak up. Sephiroth proceeds to explain what he did and Hojo tries to defend what he did.

"It was hurting her." Sephiroth spat at him. He was angry and I think I am a little glad for the blindness. I can only imagine what his face looks like right now. He is also holding me a bit too tight.

"It was a scan. It's not suppose to feel pleasant." Hojo said from the floor.

"More like electric shock!" I shout. No idea if I am facing him or not. Sephiroth is leading me somewhere and he helps me sit down.

"Sort of. It will tell me everything about you. Inside and out." He said painfully. He mumbled something else, but I could not hear it. Obviously Sephiroth did. I could hear him growling next to me.

"I hate you so much!" I crossed my arms and frowned. I could feel Sephiroth beside me.

"You'll get over it." Hojo retorted.

After seeing how Sephiroth reacted to that he decided not to do that when he was around. He did not like having his arm broken. It was in a sling for a few days which made everything he had to do very difficult. For a few days I was very happy. I regained my sight after a few hours, but I was not looking forward to doing that again. The good thing is Hojo has decided to give us an hour of 'freetime' as if were.

It seems that I am the one that gets this punishment while Sephiroth is preparing to leave. He still has another month here and he is a 'prize' for them. That one hour of freedom is not helping us at all. Cheery lady is our escort plus the Turk that now follows us around everywhere. An hour is not much time to do anything since it also coencides with dinner. It takes about thirty minutes to eat, but I guess it is not so bad. We get to go to the cafeteria and eat.

I have noticed a few unusual occurrences in the past few days. Since I arrived here a total of thirty-five strange incidents have occurred (as far as I know anyway). Another T-rexaur appeared and stayed long enough for Sephiroth to fight it. He realized quick that it was stronger than he thought. It was about to chomp on him when it disappeared.

I have noticed certain objects in the lab disappear and some objects randomly appear out of thin air. I find this both interesting and disturbing at the same time. _What could all of this mean? _Hojo has also noticed and taken an interest in these events. Only a few monsters have appeared and all of them are from FF8. It is hard to tell where any of the items are coming from.

After our daily bout I noticed that my shadow had not come with me. I looked around and saw it standing behind Hojo. This time I noticed how different it looked. The first time it had only been a misshapen version of what I am seeing now. This time it is flawless. _How is it doing that?_

Without warning it pushed him into the console causing him to get a busted lip. I swear it looked like it was laughing at him. Before he could turn around to see who was there it had disappeared. He glared at us and we both shrugged. He let that one slide, but once again my shadow had decided to torture him some more.

The entire time we were in there it was stealing from him and moving things. He became so infuriated that he yelled at his aids. The woman took it calmly, but the other one looked very fearful. She explained that it was not their fault and that she had no idea why things did not seem to be in the right place today.

My shadow had done a very good job at being stealthy. It had to make sure that three people never saw what it did. I suppose it did not mind if Sephiroth and me watched.

After Hojo could not take anymore he sent us back to our cell and my shadow followed returning to me briefly before choosing to do one last thing. It took his jacket and caught it in the door when he closed it.

"What the hell!?" He exclaimed. He tugged on his jacket, but that would never free it. "Damn this infernal thing!" He opened the door and quickly grabbed his jacket out of the way as he closed it. He rushed over to the elevator and mumbled all the way back to the lab. Both of us were trying not to laugh too hard.

"Well that was interesting." I said. I looked down and found my shadow back in place. Sephiroth was watching it as well.

"Did you do that?" He asked after some time. I shook my head. _I only wish I could make it do that!_

"If it keeps this up everyone will think the lab is haunted or something." I said laughing. I could just imagine what some of them might say. Hojo of course would probably dismiss the idea. I think cheery lady would buy it though. She seems to be the more superstitious type.

"Do you believe in such things?" Sounds as if he does not. I nod. I do believe that there are ghosts. It is much easier to believe that on this world though. Here just about anything could happen. "Why?"

At first I was not sure how I should answer. Then I thought about some of the dreams I have had in the past few years. That is enough to convince me that there are ghosts. I get the feeling that the man I have been talking to is not alive. "I see them in my dreams."

That was enough to end that conversation. An hour later our one hour of free time had begun. We could go anywhere inside the building except certain designated areas. Since this time also coincides with dinner we decided to go to the cafeteria and eat knowing that we really will not get to do anything els.

Mistake #1

We went into the cafeteria and I noticed that someone was going around playing jokes on everyone. I ignore it thinking that some idiot is trying to be funny. Cheery lady (um...Sheila) has noticed and tells us to ignore it. Someone acting juvenile is not something we should watch. Us being teenagers and her an authority figure we watch ignoreing her advice. The Turk with us moves in a little close and keeps an eye on the surrounding chaos.

Mistake #2

I fail to notice that this person is getting closer to our table and so are the angry people. Sephiroth sees this and brings it to my attention much too late.

Cheery lady jumps up to defend us and gets several trays of food dumped on her. The Turk moves in front of us trying to protect us. I look around and see that my shadow has been causing more trouble. _I'll have to figure out how to control it or I'll end up in trouble._

Mistake #3

While looking for my shadow I do not notice that it is right behind me!

With a shove I fall forward smacking into some guy that could not move fast enough. He gets mad and pushes me back into the booth. That was his mistake! Sephiroth gets in his way and he thinks that he can take him. "Get out of the way boy!" He shouts.

Sephiroth glances back at me smirking and then lays him out in one punch. My shadow has returned and decided to quit being bad for the day. We leave with almost no dinner and cheery lady promises to bring us something later.

"Stupid shadow." We are in our cell again and both of us are glaring down at my shadow. "I need to figure out how to make you listen to me." I tell it. I get no reaction as expected, but that does not mean I am not angry. _Stupid shadow had to interrupt dinner!_

Sephiroth sat next to me frowning at it. "I agree. If things like this keep happening…." He stopped seeing cheery lady at the door. She had two trays of food in her hands. I was glad to see her for once. She looked very angry.

"Here you go. I don't know what got into them. That was very rude!" She said before leaving.

We ate and then went to sleep hoping that tomorrow would be a better day.

In the white place I find him waiting there. It has been a while. Almost over a month since the last time we spoke.

"A shadow is a fickle thing. Hard to control, but you must do it. I know you can." He said. I have my doubts about that. It seems pretty out of control to me. _How can I tame it?_

"Think of it as an extension of yourself. It is a part of you even when it's out playing jokes on people." He sounded amused by this. It makes me wonder how much of my life he sees. Does he just watch from here or is he there?

The dream ends abruptly and I wake up feeling like I hardly got any sleep. It was not even time to get up yet. Sephiroth was awake as well. We could hear someone upstairs. "What's going on up there?"

He waves a hand to silence me so he can listen. "It's just like when you came." I had no idea what that meant. Maybe there is someone else up there. "Doesn't sound like Hojo is up there though."

The noises died down and we went back to sleep. No dreams then and I woke up feeling a little tired from waking up in the middle of the night.

My shadow had decided to repeat its actions of the day before and I decided to try (if I could) to control it. I managed to stop it from doing a few things. My shadow managed to push Hojo down once and the aids twice. Only a few items were displaced in the lab thanks to my efforts.

My shadow was very unwilling to cooperate and it took a lot of effort to make it listen. I felt very tired once the day was over. All that effort had taken a lot out of me. Hojo was not amused by any of it. Just before it was time to leave he had seen my shadow. I had given up by then feeling too exhausted to try. Once it noticed he had seen it it leaped into a shadow to return to me more discreetly.

"So that's been causing all of the mischeif." He said shaking his head. He glanced at me breifly with a smirk and then told the aids to take us downstairs.

"It seemed more subdued today. You did that didn't you?" I nodded and then laid down to go to sleep. I will have to try harder next time so it will not get us in trouble again.

**Author:** I have a pic of Siren and Scythe. I drew them together and after I drew it the first time I realized that her hand was wrong. So I redrew it. That's why I didn't show that one first. Next update I'll have 2 pics up. One of Enshii and a special one that goes with that chapter.


	13. Farewell

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 13 Goodbye

**"Tears of Sadness... Tears of Joy... They're far from the same." **- Jing (King of Bandits Jing)

Hojo has made sure that we hardly have time to ourselves. That new scan has been only a weekly occurrence though. He still uses all of the old machines for everything. I suppose that is because they show more reliable results. I have seen some technicians working on it. Probably fixing it.

Hojo found other ways to show his idea of fun to me. Sephiroth gets to sit back and watch and if things do not go the right way (they never do) he steps in to stop it. He has been doing that lately. Rescuing me all the time. Hojo hates that. I think he just does not like having broken bones.

So far I have had mako put directly into my body (supposedly there are other things in with it and it burns like hell), a surgery done (no idea what he did to me), and different types of electric shocks along with several shots of an unkknown substance. It has been a little over a month and Hojo is starting to slow down on that front. I suppose he thinks I get the point now.

That creepy aid is also becoming a problem. I seem to be the only one who has noticed that she has been here the longest. The other guy has already turned into one of the dead. I guess he could not handle whatever Hojo had in store. Now he has become like the aids I had first seen. Weird noises, horrible stench and clothes that cover everything.

I think there is definitely something weird going on. Why would she still be doing ok? Hojo has only commented on it once and then dismissed it as if it were nothing. I seem to be the only one bothered by her creepiness. Sephiroth is never around her enough to notice so he dismisses my claims that she is out to get me. I really think so. She stares at me too much and she tries very hard to stay close to me.

Sephiroth did not think there was anything weird about her until a little incident a few days ago. Hojo had finished with us for the day and asked her to put up everything. My shadow had decided to cause some more trouble, but this time I did not even try to stop it. She deserves whatever she gets for taking this stupid job.

She had everything ready to put up and was carrying it over to store it for tomorrow and my shadow followed her every step. She was humming to herself and did not seem to notice that she was not going alone. I thought it was going to push her or trip her, but it hid in her shadow and just as she was about to put the things on the shelf it shoved it into her chest making sure to break all of it. There were needles and glass beakers and other various objects that are now protruding from her chest.

"Damn!" She dropped what had not been lodged into her. She looked around and saw that neither of us had moved. She swore everytime she pulled something out. She was mumbling to herself and Sephiroth got a little closer to listen. I waited patiently knowing that he would tell me later. There were a lot of small pieces of glass in her and it took her a while to find them all. Hojo had come back and noticed the commotion. He was not even angry that everything was broken. He seemed more interrested in the fact that she was pulling out the glass.

The last one she attempted was the worst. It was the biggest piece and in the worst place. Any normal human would have been on the ground and out of it right now. She seemed to be fine and Hojo watched her with an evil grin.

"What happened?" He asked her calmly. She explained that something had shoved it at her. He looked her over and from where we were standing we could easily see that the wounds were already gone. She told him that she was fine and made a quick exit. She seemed a little distressed. Hojo immediately sent us downstairs and I sat down waiting to hear what Sephiroth had heard her say.

He sat next to me and looked a bit confused. "She cursed more than anything. She said something about wanting to leave..." He paused and shook his head.

"What? So she wants to leave? What's the big deal?"

"She didn't say her job...she said this world." He shook his head as if he could not believe what he was saying. _If that is true then she is not from Gaia?_

Sephiroth looked at me and I could tell we were thinking the same thing. "Do you really believe that?" He shook his head and then shrugged.

"It doesn't really matter anyway." He said. Then he went to his bed and laid down. He faced the wall and I knew that he was not asleep. This changed a lot of things. If it is true that is. _I always thought she was strange._

I have noticed that the closer it gets to the day he leaves the more he clings to me. He has been doing that ever since the party. In two weeks he will leave and he does not seem to want to go. I am finding it harder and harder to make him stop touching me. Jenova does not seem to like this at all. He has told me that she is jealous when he pays more attention to me. _Afraid of losing you pawn?_

"_No." _She answered. It did not sound very confident. She had more to say, but she was saving it.

One night I found myself unable to sleep. I looked over at him to see if he was awake. He was already asleep. _Must be one of those people that can go to sleep in five minutes. _For some reason I could not get over a strange feeling. I try to push my thoughts in a different direction so I can sleep. After another hour of failing at that I finally go to sleep.

In the morning he is already awake and staring at me like he always does. Sometimes I wonder what he thinks about and then I decide I may be better of not knowing. In less than two weeks he would leave and go off to be a soldier. That means he will be bound to Shinra completely.

We have not talked about what him leaving means to either of us. A week passed and I could tell that he dreaded leaving more and more. He would hold my hand when we went to the lab and he did the same on the way back. I finally decided to talk about it. If I did not then it might drive me crazy. "Sephiroth. How do you feel about leaving?" He was sitting next to me and he squeezed my hand slightly before answering.

"I don't want to. I always thought I would be glad to leave. When Sheila left the door open I learned something. You are much braver than I." He said that sadly and he let go of my hand, but I stopped him.

"That is not true! If I were in trouble you would help me. I don't know if I would do the same though."

"Fighting is one thing. I was born for it…and that is not the first opportunity I have had to escape this place." I froze hearing those words.

_He could have left then, but he didn't? Why? _I could not believe what he had just said. "You mean you could have left before?" He nodded. "Why didn't you leave?"

He looked away for a moment thinking. "I don't know." He said shaking his head. "I just felt that I shouldn't. I suppose that for a long time I was afraid."

That surprised me more than anything else. _Sephiroth afraid? _"Afraid?"

He nodded. "When I was younger." He stated. I should have thought of that. "Not anymore though. I fear nothing...not even death." He said it so plainly. I leaned against him. We sat like that for a few minutes until he decided to talk again. "Do you want me to leave?" He said looking at me.

I started to shake my head, but thought better of it. "Yes and no." I finally said. "I don't want you to go, but I don't want you to stay either." I gave him a hug. He hugged back, but kept it loose.

"I'll miss you." He said quietly.

The next day he acted a bit distant. He will be leaving the next day and I suppose he is trying to make leaving easier on himself and me. It was fine with me. I am not good with goodbyes. Hojo did the usual with us, but Sephiroth did not train. We had the rest of the day to ourselves in our cell and we had special permission to go wherever as long as we had an escort.

Sheila came and got us early thinking that we might want to spend some time away from the chamber. She took us wherever we wanted to go until it was bedtime. We did not do much though. We were not really interested in that. Sephiroth would be gone tomorrow and all I really wanted to do was cry.

I manage not to and I get to see him off. Hojo comes and gets us. Sephiroth gets some training clothes that he has to put on now so I turn away until he is done. Once that is over we go up to the presidents office for the sendoff.

There is a helicopter waiting and the Turks are all lined up in front of it. The president will be escorting Sephiroth to Junon. It is merely a publicity thing I am sure. Sephiroth held my hand the entire time. Hojo left us alone for a second and Sephiroth took that moment to steal a kiss.

It was strange feeling his lips on mine even though it was only for a second. It was long enough to frazzle me though. "Goodbye." He said. Hojo had come back and the president was attempting to drag Sephiroth away.

I could not form words so I waved and tried to smile. He smiled back briefly and turned around. The president had one hand on his shoulder and they walked to the helicopter. The president was much shorter than Sephiroth so it looked very strange.

We stayed until they were about to take off. Two Turks had gone with them and the rest would be staying to look after things here. They forced us back into the office and watched them take off. Without a word we went back to the lab. Hojo must have noticed how I was acting. I could not keep myself from crying. _Five minutes and I already miss him!_

**Author:** I have a pic of Enshii and a special one for this chapter. I have the link on Enshii so just click next to see the other one.


	14. My Training Begins

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 14 My training begins

The first night without him was strange. I kept looking over at his bed to make sure that he was really gone. I cried some too. I ended up crying myself to sleep. That in itself took hours. It did not really sink in until after I ate. I suppose that that was a good thing. No one else got to see me cry aside from Hojo.

With Sephiroth gone that means I will probably be spending more time with _him_. I am going to make it a living hell for him if I can. It seems that subconsciously I am...or my shadow is. It seems to be listening to my feelings rather than actual commands. I wanted to be left alone so it made sure that no one bothered me for a while.

I was also informed that I would be getting weapons training. Hojo was finally strongly advised to get that started. First they have to figure out what weapon would be best for me. I already know it has to be long-range weapons. I am actually good at that.

Even with all of the things that Hojo has done to me I cannot be that strong. Admittedly I am stronger than before, but I am nothing compared to Sephiroth. I am considered weaker than a third class Soldier (according to Hojo). Right now Sephiroth is stronger than…everyone (I think).

I have learned that floors forty through forty-five are for soldier training (mainly those stationed here). Forty has the gym (for third class and lower). Forty-one has the first and second-class gym. Forty-two is for rookie training (where I will be going).

Forty-three is the showers and lockers (Separated according to gender, of course. There are female soldiers though very few). Forty-four is weapon storage. Forty-five houses a huge battle arena (for all classes) with a room in the back containing monsters.

Sheila is the one who showed me all of this. Once we were on floor forty-two I was sent off with a musky smelling, middle-aged brute. He wore the regular Soldier armor and looks like he has not shaved in months.

_Do they even have a dress code for Soldier?_

"My name is Usher. I'll be overseeing you're training." _He sounds like a Texan! _Hearing him speak made me think of home. Everyone has their own stereotype of Texas. (Not everyone is a cowboy or hick.) For me it is home where I was raised and now it was gone...probably forever. Usher said something, but I did not hear it. He shook me out of my memories and repeated himself.

"Alright little lady lets see if we can find you a weapon." He motioned for me to follow him and we walked up the stairs to the forty-fourth floor.

There were weapons of every kind lining the entire room. There were three rows of cases plus three rows of weapons on each wall (not including the front). "You're pretty small so we can rule out everything on the left wall."

They had everything categorized by type and weight to make things easier to find. The middle cases in the room were for guns only though. I found myself looking over to the right wall. I was looking over at the lighter swords. I like swords! (No idea if I could actually use one though.) I really do not like guns, but I can use one if I need to. Usher seemed to be thinking the same thing and guided me over there to have a better look.

He pointed out a few lightweight swords and some gunblades. I really liked the gunblades. They had a pair that was small (perfect for me) and sturdy as Usher said. He was explaining every one that he pointed out to me. He also went into more detail when he thought he found something I would be suited for. I am leaning toward the gunblades.

He said that I would probably have to learn a variety of weapons just in case. "You never know. If your own weapon is taken from you, you have to use whatever is at hand." He said. He also gave me an overview of what I would be doing.

First he would teach me hand-to-hand combat (I guess finding a weapon I like now will save time later). Then he would start me on the basics of swordplay. Once I got that down pretty good he would start me on handgun training (only a few hours a day) and I have to start going to the gym everyday.

After the overview he took me to the locker rooms and I was given new clothes. They looked a lot like regular soldier outfits. They smelled funny too. I get the feeling that they are there in case someone forgets their uniform and they have not washed them.

After going back down to the forty-second floor my training began. There was a small gym here for gauging strength, which is where he started me off. He wanted to know how much I could bench, lift, etc.

I got up to one hundred sixty lbs. (which actually feels heavier) before I needed some help. (He started at one hundred thirty.) I was actually surprised by how easy it was. Before I could barely lift one hundred. He wanted to see how far I could go before I could not even lift it anymore. I got up to two hundred twenty-five lbs. That is when my face turned red and he had to help me.

I could not believe it. He did not really seem that impressed with it. I looked around and saw that everyone else were benching at least over two hundred lbs. That made me think that by the time this is over I will probably be stronger than them. _Thanks to Hojo. _I frown at that thought.

"That wasn't too bad. Lets see what else you can do." He sounds so happy about this. I am sweaty now and feeling gross and I am getting stares from all of the guys. How come they do not have a private gym or something? We move on and I am forced to do all kinds of things while he writes them down on his clipboard that came out of nowhere.

Afterward I get a break. He says that I earned it. This is the part where I am sitting down drinking some water and some poor sap comes up to me. Usher is in the office chatting it up with someone he knows (kind of like my family. They will talk forever!) and now the sap is talking to me.

"Um…excuse me…." I look up from my drink and there is a scrawny blonde kid staring me down with a goofy smile on his face. Behind him were his friends who were watching intently as their friend embarrassed himself. Every other word they said to each other had a giggle behind it. Some friends he has got. _They must have bet he would not be able to do this or something like that._

"What is it?" I said trying not to sound mad. Mainly I want to yell at his friends for being assholes!

"I was wondering…um…uh…." He paused and scratched his head. He is blushing to high heaven! I want to die now. He looks back at his friends for encouragement, but they cannot stop laughing.

"Maybe you should sit down. You don't look so good." He looks at me and his eyes grow wide. He mumbles something and then backs away laughing nervously. I look over at his friends and they are roaring with laughter. I see one of them pass another some gil and I know I was right. They made some kind of bet on him. I sigh and finish the water. Usher finally returns, but is followed by his associate who is still talking.

"I hope you are rested up now the real training begins!" His friend goes away and he leads me over to the mini arena in there. "Now I know you can fight the weaker monsters by yourself and now I can see why. You aren't that strong." He said matter of factly. "But you know how to pack a punch. I am going to teach you how to fight hand-to-hand in a way that helps you." He pointed to me when he said that.

Basically this part of the training is where I learn martial arts final fantasy style. I get my ass kicked several times and then after four hours I start to beat him. That is when he wants to quit.

"Well I think that's enough for today." He walks me back up to the lab and hands me over to the waiting Hojo. I am sent to the cell while they talk about what I did all day. I immediately fall asleep on the bed.

I feel so exhausted that even in my dreams I feel that way. I am in the white place and Jenova is speaking to me again. She has been quiet for a while now and I have not decided whether I should be worried about that. Now all of a sudden she has decided to annoy me.

"_You really are weak. If you would accept me then you would be much stronger." _She says to me trying to sound nice. I try to ignore her like Sephiroth said, but it is harder than it sounds.

"You're saying that he is stronger because he accepts you."

"_Exactly. If you did the same then…."_

I quickly interrupt her. "Sorry, but I would rather not. You lied to him. That is hardly fair to him."

"_There is nothing wrong with that." _I laugh at her.

"There is everything wrong with that!" The voices come before she can say anything else and I know that I am about to wake up. I hear her screaming telling the voices to go away. _Is she afraid of them?_

I wake up wondering exactly what that place is. Is it really a dream or is it an out of body experience? I need to figure that out sometime.

Sheila comes in bringing my breakfast. It still seems weird that it is just me here. I do not like being in here alone. Having Sephiroth here made it much easier. Maybe I just felt more confident with him around.

She noticed me staring absently at his bed. "You miss him don't you?" She said and it sounded like she missed him too. "I have been taking care of him for a long time now. It's sad to see him go off to become a soldier." She sighed and gave me my breakfast.

It was actually boring without him around since he had started talking to me. We would talk for hours about all kinds of things. Now all that time is empty and I have to fill it with something. I have some sketchpads that Sheila gave me. I even have my own hiding place now so I can keep them.

I draw even more now than I have in my whole life on earth. Most of my drawings now look sad. The people cry or have a sad look on their faces. I still draw a few comics of Hojo, but they are not as enthusiastic as they use to be.

I drew a few of Sephiroth as well. I still find it difficult to draw him younger than he looks in the game. I draw him when I know I miss him. Jenova has stopped annoying me completely now. She seems preoccupied with something else now. She is probably concentrating on breaking the barriers 'he' made.

It has been a week since he left and I find myself missing him more than I thought I would. I cannot help starring at his bed thinking about him and wishing that he were here. It would certainly make being here a lot easier. I know that I cannot possibly understand how he must have felt being alone here for so long. I do not even feel alone here. I have Jenova and the man in my dreams, and I am certain others as well. I simply feel something missing.

I thought training would be a good way to keep my mind off that, but even then I could not help wondering how he was doing.

In my dreams I think about him, but not when they want to talk to me. Jenova just brings up my shortcomings and her hatred. She has also leaked some of what she was able to learn from me. She has not really gotten that far. According to that mystery man all FF7 (movie and all games that I have play or learned something about) are blocked. She will see them in the order they go. That means the little I know about Crisis Core and Before Crisis she knows.

Apparently we have both made our own assumptions there. She has hinted on some characters from the game. She mentioned Barret once, but tried to act as if she had not said anything. That stuff is years away from happening though. I would not mind knowing exactly how much she does know, but I know that she is not just going to tell me.

The mystery man is slowly becoming less mysterious. I get the feeling that he is running out of energy or something like that. It is just a feeling. When he speaks to me I get this impression that I should know him very well. It seemed that he was going through a lot of effort to hide his identity from me. He is not just a dark figure anymore.

I could see his clothes. He wore a suit and now that I could see him he faced away from me. He told me not to worry. The thing is I do not even worry about me anymore. He also mentioned Sephiroth.

"You should be careful. Those feelings can help you or hurt you." He said. It does not sound as if he minds that I am sad he is gone. I know that he will come and visit me sometime. When is another question. I was trying to change the subject. I had a question that had been nagging at me ever since my shadow injured that aid.

"I know you see a lot of what goes on around me. One of the aids concerns me. I don't think she is from Gaia." He nodded, but seemed reluctant to answer.

"I would have hoped they would be more discreet than that." He seemed to be frowning. "I am not sure that you are ready to know yet, but then again you may find out first hand." That sounded like a warning. Whoever she or they were it did not sound good.

"Who are they?" I asked. I had to ask. Natural curiosity made me do it.

"There is still time so I will just say this." He paused as if searching for exactly what he wanted to say. "You are right and wrong about her at the same time." That was it. The signal telling me I was going to wake up came and I found myself starring at the ceiling of the chamber thinking that just was not enough.

I know that he did that on purpose. I guess that I can wait to find out. I just hope that I do not find out until it is too late. I would like to try and avoid something bad happening.

**Author:** I don't know that much about BC or CC. I will ignore BC and make up my own assumptions of how CC plays out until told otherwise. Angeal, Zack and Genesis will be in here eventually.

Updates may become irregular now that I have a new schedule at school. No more friday class. I had to get an annoying schedule. 2 eight hr days and two days of the same class for only 2 hrs. (I think its stupid!) I will probably update every Thursday, but that is not a guarantee.

Thanks to everyone that has reviewed, and faved my story. Makes me happy:)


	15. Three months later

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 15 Three months later

My training is going well and I noticed that my shadow is detaching itself from me every once in a while and causing mischief. I have attempted to control it, but so far that has failed miserably. Hojo has seen it a few times, but has not said anything yet. I am surprised that he has not tried to capture and study it.

I can get it to do things, but it is more like a twitch when it happens. Every once in a while it would actually do what I wanted it to. I started off with simple things like moving, but staying connected to me. (It was too difficult for me to force it to detach.)

I have not figured out exactly what this means. Clearly it is my shadow and somehow it can move of its own accord. (This reminds me of some books that I read once where a magician can move his shadow.) My shadow is an asshole then because it does not want to listen to me. For some reason it only does helpful things when I am sad or angry.

A few weeks later and I have managed to make it listen to me while still attached to me. When it is detached (I only managed to do that once) it does whatever it wants. I have given up for now.

I am now considerably stronger thanks to the untiring efforts of Usher. (Almost better than a third class!) I can now bench about one hundred ninety-five lbs easily. I can make it up to two hundred fifty-five before I really need help. (He did not help me at first and laughed until I started yelling at him.) He congratulated me and everything. It felt good to hear someone say that.

I have only managed to beat him once and that was because he was a bit distracted. Since I have been spending so much time with him I now know more about his personal life than I would like.

He is married and has a daughter, plus one on the way. His wife is going through mood swings like crazy and it is driving him and their best friend insane. Since he is here so much having to train me he spends even less time at home than he did before. So a good friend of his is helping out around the house.

He sounded proud of his family, but at the moment he feels like he is not doing enough for them. His job here made sure that he had a nice home for them to live in and the pay is very good. He gets free stuff for being with Shinra and special treatment in certain situations. What more could you want?

"A vacation!" He said loudly. He was pretending to chat it up with the blonde standing a few feet away from him. The blonde seems to be ignoring him pretty well. I am trying very hard to do the same thing. It is actually starting to get annoying.

Today was my big test on stealth. I have to get past them without being noticed and I am taking my time. He is talking to everyone since we can all hear him. In this room your voice carries. So far I think that he has only been quiet for five...maybe ten minutes. (I know he is doing it on purpose though.)

We had already gone over all of the stealth lessons that he had for me. I could not talk for a week for one of them. That was not all that hard for me since I hardly ever talk. Sephiroth was the only person I really talked to.

For another lesson I had to sneak up on him whenever it was time to train. It took a couple of tries to get that one to work. He has very good hearing. Also everyone else is a total idiot. They would give me away and then he would yell at them while yelling at me. (He only said that I had to sneak up on him. He should have been more specific.)

After that one he wanted me to sneak in without being seen by anyone. So until I could sneak by them all that lesson might never end. It was not really all that hard when most of them were not that observant.

Now we were trying them all out. We were in the Battle arena on the forty-fifth floor. He had reserved it for about four hours and set it up with different things for me to use as cover. He made it look like the entrance of some military base.

"I haven't had a vacation in three years. You get tired eventually." He said. He prattled on while watching from his guard position close-by the door. In all there were a total of five guards. They were the only stationary guards.

The other three walked around the room. There was a small observation level. Technically this room took up two floors. There was a guard up there walking slowly back and forth. The other two were on the sides of the room. I had learned that they both had sharp eyes, but bad hearing. I could be behind them and they would not know it.

"Mirrin is ready for one, but I think it will have to wait until she has the baby. Emily will like that. She can't seem to wait for her new brother." He said. I could see all of them from my current hiding place. I had been watching their movements trying to find the right moments to get by them unnoticed. All of them were taller than me. I have not seen a short person here yet.

The room was very symmetrical so that made finding hiding places a bit easier. I could look at the opposite wall and know where I could hide over here. One thing I had to worry about was my hair. Usher had told me that that would be one of the things that would get me caught.

Today I had it up in a hat completely hidden. I frowned as I watched the closest one come towards me. He was slowly moving closer to me every time. The other one was doing the same. Somehow they kept pace with each other creating a perfect window for me to get by them. Of course, there was still three other guards to see me. It had been an hour already and I was almost there.

There were a total of three ways to get to my destination. There was the door (of course), a ladder (leading to the observation level so that was out of the question), and an intentional hole in the wall. I think trying to get to that would get me caught. Its on the other side of the room.

I waited patiently for the guard to pass me and I quietly, but quickly made my way to a new hiding spot. I had to be quick knowing that in a few seconds Usher would look my way and I would be caught. I made it. This spot was only a few yards from my destination. I was hoping that I could do it, but somehow I knew no matter what I would get caught.

Another thought caught my attention. This could help me get out of here, but then there is Sephiroth. I could not just go without saying something to him. I pushed that aside and went back to my objective. Somehow I have to get through that door. I knew that there was someone on the other side that would tell them if I had made it before I was found.

That person had given me a helping hand. The right door opened and someone stepped through. _Now's my chance!_ I thought. There was a brief moment where I thought here was my ticket. No one was looking. The mobile guards were going the other way and the door lay open waiting for me to go through.

Whatever they were talking about it had nothing to do with this test. Usher was still being very alert. I could not hear what they were talking about, but Usher hardly seemed affected by it. For a moment his whole attention was on the young man that had somewhat interrupted this test. I would have gone then, but it only lasted for a moment.

Usher glanced around the room as the man spoke to him and then his attention went to the door. I waited for him to look away and then took my chances. For some reason I got a bad feeling. I was almost to the door when I saw it. My shadow was going to do something I knew it.

_NO!_ I screamed in my thoughts. It could totally give me away and we both knew it! I froze for a moment and realized that was my downfall. _Damn! _Usher and all of them turned around and for whatever reason my shadow was not being shy.

In fact, it was strutting around. I glared it down and everyone stared at it with mixed expressions. They were all unsure of what it was and what they should do. I clenched my fist and yelled at it mentally telling it to go back. Suddenly it twitched and froze. I got the feeling that it really was not listening to me. Something else was happening.

It turned its head slightly looking at me intently and then melted. I had not done that and I was shocked myself. No one moved or said a word. What would any of us say? Usher cleared his throat and ordered them to leave.

"Not bad. You might have made it." He said writing on his clipboard. He smiled slightly and showed me my score.

"6.5?" I wanted a more elaborate explanation.

"I saw you a few times, but I let it slide. It's the first time you've really tried them out. Plus you were doing a good job getting past them without being seen. I don't expect anyone else to be that sharp." He sighed and pushed me through the door.

I felt a little disappointed that I did not do better, but I had to get over it. He took me back to Hojo and explained what happened while giving him his notes to look over.

"We'll start doing this every once in a while and I know you'll get better at it. Maybe even to the point where I can't find you." He said before leaving. Hojo decided to do some tests. It had taken less time than anyone had planned so he decided to get some things out of the way. It has been a while since he has actually given me a physical.

**Author**: The story I referred to was about Merlin in his youth. Can't remember the name of it, but he has a hard time controlling his shadow. It actually sort of makes fun of him. Even when he meets his future self the shadow is still like that, but it listens.

I was sad because I had lost all my story files, but now they are found! Someone was nice and decided not to steal my usbs. Everyone says I have good karma. I heard that all day yesterday. I think it's just because I had a bad first week of school so this week was bound to be better.

Thanks to my reviewers! You are all much appreciated!


	16. Old Friends and New Problems

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up! 

Ch. 16 Old Friends and New Problems

Sephiroth paced back and forth deep in thought. No one dared disturb him. Though he had yet to become the famed fighter well known on the game he still had a wide reputation. The look he had now told them all to leave him alone. Everyone passed him by more quickly than they normally would.

He had just gotten some news from the higher ups that he would not be first class just yet. this was a major annoyance to him. He finally decided that he needed a better place to think so he returned to his room.

It had only been four months since his training began and it was going slower (he thought) than it should. He knew the reason. Shinra wanted him to seem normal, but the fact is that he is not. That is no secret. He makes no attempt to hide his talents as a fighter and a tacticion.

He had quickly shot through training on all levels, but 1st class was still beyond him. A technicality he knew, but he had a good reason to be angry. Someone he held dear to him. He had thought about her the majority of the time though the voice in his head told him to abandon those thoughts. He simply could not and would not do that. Simply put...he missed her.

Thanks to this technicality he had to wait two more months before he was given leave. He planned on going back to Midgar. She was there after all and he knew (though he was not sure how) that she missed him as well. He understood fully how lonely it could get. Every once in a while the voice (Jenova) would grace him with a tidbit of information. Something that told him she was all right. From that he learned that she too was training and doing quite well at it. That was something he truly wanted to see.

He also found that he was not exactly alone here. Two familiar faces presented themselves in the form of roommates.

"It has been a while, Sephiroth." A dark haired man carrying a large sword said. Sephiroth looked at the sword finding it strangely polished. No scratches, cuts, or even a speck of dirt on it. He saw the materia it held and knew that it was leveled up all the way. A tell-tale sign that told him it could only belong to Angeal Hewley. Angeal also carried another sword with him one that was more battle worn.

They shook hands and Angeal settled himself down on a bed to unpack. Sephiroth had watched silently thinking about where they had first met. The chamber on the sixty-seventh floor of Shinra building where she now waited.

His thoughts were interrupted as someone else entered. Another familiar, but unwelcome face. "G." Sephiroth shot him a glare. He had always felt a strange hatred for him. He had never understood that hatred, but only ignored it unless he did something distasteful.

"Sephiroth! Angeal!" G said smiling broadly. "Well it seems we are all together again." G offered his hand and Sephiroth chose not to take it. He hated the weird feeling he always got from touching him. He seemed to be acting friendly enough, but Sephiroth knew that beyond that was a highly psychotic mind. He knew to be careful of him.

Once the three of them were settled G insisted they catch up. A lot of time had passed since the last time they had seen each other. Sephiroth found this annoying, but it gave him the chance to voice his own opinions of them and certain past events. G and Angeal did not have much to say. Moving from one lab or another and then finally making it into the military was their story. They were both first class and were surprised that Sephiroth was not.

Sephiroth hesitated to tell them anything. He was comfortable talking to Angeal. G was another story. "I left the lab recently as per the orders of the president. I don't really want to be here." He finished.

From that both of them could see there was a reason. Angeal knew that if he was patient Sephiroth would tell him eventually. G on the other hand was not a patient man. The word was not in his vocabulary. He was going to coax it out of him one way or another.

This only led to irritation and finally anger on Sephiroth's part. He was not telling G if he could help it. Almost four months passed and Sephiroth had managed to keep his secret. Now he paces back and forth in front of his bed frustrated and a little worried that he had let out his secret and not to either of his roommates...sort of. This problem made the two-month wait even harder for him.

Another dark haired man had somehow managed to befriend them all. He was in Angeals group and proved to be a good fighter. He was energetic and friendly to all. Sephiroth had found him annoying, but not too much. Zack Fair was a first class hopeful along with so many others.

He was currently second-class with Sephiroth and even he found it odd that they were holding him back. Sephiroth was more surprised by the fact that he considered him a "friend". He constantly followed Angeal around and even he held Sephiroth with the revere that was spreading around the world.

Shinra was advertising him as the new face of Shinra. Their little poster boy. He made good posters and was likable thanks to some nice touch ups. Sephiroth did not smile. He was quickly becoming a heartthrob and that was the most annoying prospect. Random girls seeking him out hoping that he would even look at them. In some cases they made "offers" that he declined.

A smile did look good on him though. His newfound reputation was however unwanted. He loathed the interviews and was thankful that training took precedence over everything else. No matter what the public wanted of him it was important that he become a first class soldier. He was actually hoping to go even further.

It would give him a great amount of freedom and power. He was working his way up and it was all part of his plan. He had thought of it when he heard that he would be placed in the military. The more power he held the better. He planned to somehow get her out of there. Out of the lab and Hojo's grasp forever.

That thought brought a smile to his face as he paced back and forth watched by Angeal and Zack who had been afraid to ask their question. The smile faded as he thought more about it. Now that they knew what would happen? He still found it ridiculous that he had told him. His incessant chatter and annoying laugh had somehow melted the wall around Sephiroth.

This defense gone he felt a swell of strange feelings. Friendship, some form of happiness, freedom, comfort of some kind. He felt comfortable around Zack in a way that he had not with Angeal and G. He had found himself talking about her in a way that even he thought was strange. He spoke of her as if he loved her, but Sephiroth did not really understand this. No one had ever shown him love of any sort.

Honestly that is not true. Sheila had loved him in her own way. Though hearing the word may have done more for him than simply showing it. Sometimes you need to associate a word with a feeling and that is the case for Sephiroth. He has always had feelings he felt, but never understood. No amount of reading material could help him there.

Zack listened to him relishing in the fact that he would even share something so personal with him. This girl he spoke of sounded like an angel from his desctiption. Zack almost felt envious of him. He had someone to love, but Zack did not. He had not found his angel as Sephiroth had.

He did sense some denial to that fact. Something in the way he told the story. Zack did not understand the reason, but Sephiroth was denying his feelings for her. Knowingly or not was the question though.

Angeal had come in halfway through the tale interrupting him. Sephiroth had hesitated to continue, but Zack was very persuasive. It was not that big of a deal. Sephiroth trusted Angeal. Afterward Sephiroth could not understand why he had done it.

_Why did I tell him of all people? He can't even keep his mouth shut!_ He thought as he paced. The only thing he hoped was that G never found out. Sephiroth had talked for almost an hour and he had not paid attention to whether they were being spied on or not. That was something G could do easily. It was his talent.

"Sephiroth?" Zack said weakly. He was very afraid that Sephiroth would do something terrible to him. He stopped pacing and sat down lowering his head so they could not see his face.

"What, Zack?" He said sighing.

"Is there a problem?"

Sephiroth did not respond right off. He was not even sure if there was. He could hardly understand why he was acting like this. "Lets just hope there isn't." He said in answer.

"Are you worried about her?" Sephiroth lifted his head slightly to look at Zack directly. This made Zack very uncomfortable. His gaze was sharp and he felt like his eyes were piercing through his head for something. He gave a sigh of relief when Sephiroth looked away.

"Neither of you can breathe a word about her. Not to anyone!" He said sternly. Angeal was the only one who understood what he had meant. They both swore to it and Zack left feeling a great weight on his chest.

"Trying to hide her from G aren't you?" Angeal already knew the answer to that. G would instantly be jealous. He had always been like that. Hojo had overlooked him and moved on to something else.

G was the product of two scientists that are no longer with Shinra. (Both thought to be dead.) Though their efforts were not malicious in any way they had succeeded in creating a true monster. Hojo had found him interesting, but flawed and sought to create a more perfect version.

Thus Sephiroth came into being. Though Sephiroth and Angeal remain utterly unaware of this fact. G is older and remembers it very well. He will forever hate them, but tolerate them for his own gain.

"Yes. I would like to avoid them meeting, but that might be difficult." They both sighed and laid down to rest. They both had to get up early.

Zack had taken his time going back to his room. He hated his roommate and did not look forward to walking in on him like the last time. On his way he heard someone talking and curious he took a closer look. It was Genesis. He was alone pacing back and for much like Sephiroth had done. Zack hoped that he would be too distracted to notice him.

"So there's a girl now? Interesting." He paused and thought some more. Zack knew that he had heard everything Sephiroth had said about her. "So what are you up to old man?" He looked up and smiled as if it were a simple question. "Its so simple. That must be it."

He looked around and then began pacing some more pausing every once in a while to look at his watch. _Is he waiting for someone?_ Zack thought. He looked around carefully, but saw no one. A few minutes later a man in a white coat approached G. He looked old and had long gray hair tied in a pony tail.

So why have you called me here boy?" The man said. G hushed him and glanced around the area. Zack quietly ducked down so he would not be seen.

"I heard something interesting about what Hojo has been up to." The man nodded telling him to go on. "It appears that there is a girl there about Sephiroths age. I think we should look into it." G spoke calmly at first, but it changed as he seemed more excited. Zack could not help but wonder if he were a bit psychotic. It made him shudder though. Sephiroth would definitely want to know about this.

"Good job. You can do that. I have other matters to attend to." He turned around and left the same way that he had come. G waited a minute before leaving. Zack did the same. He now had reason to fear G. Before he had simply thought him strange, but it was more than that. The way G had spoken unnerved him. He intended to do something terrible to her and he was not going to let that happen.

He cautiously stepped out of hiding and headed back to his room trying to appear calm. _Can't let anyone think something is wrong._ He kept thinking. He had the distinct feeling that he was being followed.

Junon just had to be one of the creepiest places at night. Everywhere there was a strange shadow and odd noises. Zack was a soldier and he was not afraid, but this did make things unnerving. _Crap! He could be anywhere!_ He was sure that it was G following him.

Finally he reached his room and quickly fished out the key while checking the door of course. Sometimes his roommate forgot to lock the door, but not today.

Insert key, turn, and open. A simple task right? Wrong! Bad luck had followed him all day and it was there once again. Someone placed a hand on his shoulder and firmly turned him around. He had expected G, but found the old man in the white jacket instead. Zack thought quickly and decided to play ignorance.

"I saw you snooping around." He said. His voice was low, but Zack felt the venom in it. He was not about to be scared of a creepy old man though. Fear is out of the question here.

"Excuse me?" He said calmly opening the door. The man slammed the door shut and glared at him.

"You heard things you should not have and I can't just let that go." As he spoke he held up a needle.

"W-what's that?!" Zack stared at it and images of needles, doctors, and blood rushed through his mind. He leaned against the door and was trying to think of a way out of this. The old man still had a firm grip on his shoulder and he was surprised by his strength. He could not just get away.

"It doesn't matter. You won't remember." He saw a smile spread over the mans face and he knew that he had to do something. He understood what he had meant by that. _You won't remember._ He thought quickly and remembered he had his sword. Without thinking it through he grabbed it and swung at him as fast as he could. The old man was fast and easily avoided the attack. He frowned as Zack opened the door and went inside. "What a bother."

Inside he immediately locked the door and ran to the phone. He would call Sephiroth and tell him before the creepy old man got in. He did not want to forget before he could tell him. He dialed and cursed at how slow this was going. His roommate was yelling at him for making so much noise and he yelled back telling him to shut up!

"Hello." Someone finally answered. He was disappointed to find that it was not Sephiroth. Angeal had answered, but that was ok.

"Put Seph on now!" He yelled at him. On the other end Angeal pushed the phone from his ear as the youth yelled. He frowned, but did as he was told.

"It's for you." Sephiroth took it and answered. Angeal could hear Zack yelling and apparently it was very distressing information. Sephiroth suddenly looked very angry.

"He knows! G knows about her! An old man was talking to him and he saw me! Damn!" Sephiroth had heard enough. He could tell that he clearly needed help now.

"Angeal, lets go."

"Something wrong?"

"Zack needs help." They both left calmly, but hurried over to help their friend. They had also seen G on the way, but ignored him. I'll get you later. Sephiroth thought. He imagined himself killing him and let a small smile appear for only a second.

They found the door open and no sign of anyone. It was oddly silent. Sephiroth felt around with his aura knowing that would be faster. He felt something odd and figured it was the mysterious old man. He could sense Zack as well. "This way." He could tell that Zack's roommate had already left. Like a coward he had ran instead of trying to help a fellow soldier.

Angeal followed his lead and as he had felt they were in the back and Zack was hiding for the moment. They waited silently by the door trying to assess the situation. It was dark, but they both had very good vision even at night. Quietly Sephiroth pointed them out and told Angeal to worry about Zack. Sephiroth wanted a better look at this man. Why would G talk to him about that? He honestly did not care what he wanted or why. It did not matter to him. He would end up dead one way or another.

The old man had seen them and knowing that he was now outnumbered and outmatched he did the only sensible thing he could. He ran.

Zack had seen them and silently thanked them for coming. The old man was stronger and faster than expected. He had figured out early on that he was no match for him. Sephiroth had followed after him and was surprised himself at his speed. He could move as fast as Sephiroth and that told him that he must be like Hojo in some way. They were both so similar it could not be a coincidence.

"Did you get him?" Angeal said leaning out the window. Sephiroth had leapt onto the roof to get a better look, but the old man was long gone. He merely shook his head and then came back in through the door.

They questioned Zack about what he had seen and Sephiroth had a question. Something he did not understand about what had happened. Why would Zack go to so much effort just to tell him that? So after Angeal had left he asked.

Zack only laughed and smiled thinking it a silly question, but he did not know Sephiroth well enough to understand. "You're my friend. Friends help each other. You came to help me after all...plus there's..." He broke of trying to find the right words to say.

"What is it?"

"I couldn't let them hurt her...and I know they'll try. The way G spoke..." He stopped remembering his words and tone of voice. It made him shudder. He honestly hoped that he never heard anyone talk like that again. Sephiroth could only imagine what G may have sounded like. Sephiroth sighed and knew this meant more problems for him to consider. He left and returned to his room. Angeal had waited for him, but did not ask what else they had talked about.

G was reading when they arrived. He did not say a word or look at them. They went and laid down both thinking about the night's events. While they had been gone he had been informed of the recent events. He had to remain calm. They knew, but it was only a small bit of information that would not really hinder his plans. He was a little angry that they knew, but these things happen. Stay calm and play nice until the time is right. That was all he had to do and he hated it.

**Author**: I wrote this while my usbs were missing. It actually surprised me since I wrote it on paper and stuff like that usually turns out to be crap. I was not originally going to write something like this.


	17. Visitor

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 17 Visitor

It has been six months since Sephiroth left and things seem to be going well. Sheila keeps me up to date on current events and tells me that Sephiroth has gotten very popular. She tells me Shinra is advertising him to the world. It makes sense. I am sure there is a huge group of women that drool over him. I think it is stupid, but I do understand why.

I have been sick for about three days and right now I am trying to stay warm. That means I stole the cover from Sephiroth's bed. Sheila is taking care of me and since I am sick that means no training or visits to the lab. Hojo has to come to me. When she told me that I could not stop smiling. (I am actually a little surprised that I got sick in the first place!)

I also got a surprise visit from Sephiroth. I was not even awake yet. I had felt him holding my hand. He smiled at me and I had to suppress the urge to jump up and hug him. Although me being sick helped a lot there. Jumping up would have made me feel worse.

"Sephiroth!" I sat up wrapping the cover around me and hugged him. He hugged back tightly, but it felt restrained. "You're back already?"

"It is just a short break. I thought that I would come back and see how you were doing." He pushed me away after a minute and looked me over. "You're sick." He said feeling my forehead. I nod.

"How long will you be here?" I scooted over giving him room to sit down.

"Two weeks." He said sitting down next to me. I can already see that he has gotten taller and a lot stronger. He is wearing his clothes from the game as well. He puts an arm around me and leans me against him. He felt so warm and comfortable that I found myself snuggling up against him. I could faintly hear Jenova objecting to this, but I ignored her. I am entitled to this...I am sick after all.

"That's great." I close my eyes and feel his warmth. I can hear him breathing and having him next to me felt so soothing. We sit like that for a few hours. Finally I sit up and look at him. He had fallen asleep. _That is so cute! _He must have been tired or something. I smiled and held his hand. This woke him and he smiled a little, but removed his hand.

"I brought you something." He said looking through his pockets and pulled out a small blue box. I tried not to feel too excited about him bringing me a gift. (Also something I thought would never happen. This one makes two gifts now!)

After giving it to me he sat there watching me. I was nervous about opening it. I hesitated for a moment then opened the box. There was a necklace in it. I pulled it out and looked at it. It was very well made. It was a mini Bahamut holding a summon materia.

All I could say was "wow". There was so much detail it looked like someone had turned him to stone and shrunk him. I could not figure out what the little gem was made of. It did not look like a gemstone and it was so small that I could not tell.

"I found it in Junon on the harbor. I got it cleaned up and thought it would make a nice gift for you. He is holding materia, but it is so small I doubt that it has any remnant of power left." He said after a while. I put it on and hugged him loosely. It looked like there was something else he wanted to do, but he did not voice it. He got up and left saying he would be back tomorrow. "I hope you feel better." He said on his way out.

"_How nice of him."_ Jenova said suddenly. She had been watching us the whole time and I had not even noticed. _"He seems to really like you." _She spat the words out at me. I guess she does not like that idea. I am not sure that I do either. I choose not to respond to her.

"_And how do you feel?" _She asks me. Why does she even need to ask unless she wants me to think about it? _"How do you feel about him?" _She is enjoying this.

_Shut up!_ I tell her. She laughs and retreats into the back of my mind. I sigh and realize that I do have feelings for him. It is not just that I missed having someone around. I missed him. I could slap myself. I could feel her there being amused.

When I went to sleep he was waiting for me. He seemed agitated. I was lying down again and I sat up this time. I had never really been sure if I could move. I got the sense that he was frowning at me.

"You should be careful. You could end up broken hearted." He said to me. I could not answer him at all. He was talking about my feelings for Sephiroth. The problem is they were there the whole time and I only now realized them. The next step would be to tell him, but I am not sure how to do that.

"You should also be weary of your surroundings. Pay more attention to the people around you. You are being watched after all." This was only a reminder. We have had a long talk (not really a long talk) about that aid and some other things. So far he has told me that she is part of a group that have nothing but ill intentions for me. They are part of the reason I am here on Gaia. He has yet to elaborate on that.

I nod thinking about some of the strange things that I have been noticing. Things that obviously do not belong here appearing and things also disappearing. I have to wonder if that is not somehow their doing. He will not give me a definitive answer on that one.

Before I wake up I hear Jenova yelling at him. I cannot really understand her, but I can feel her anger. Lately she has been doing that. The first time he mentioned them she came out of nowhere and yelled at him. Apparently she thought that was need to know information and that he should have mentioned it sooner.

The next day I was feeling better so Sheila gave the "ok" for me to leave. That means I can train and I have to go to the lab. (That makes me sad. It is also sad that I like being sick.)

Sephiroth visited me while I was training with Usher. He simply stood by the door watching. I felt nervous with him there. I did not want to screw up and embarrass myself. I would die! When I was done sparring with Usher I got a break and he sat next to me bearing snacks.

"I'm impressed. It looked like you were going to beat him." He said giving me a sandwich. I shook my head.

"No. He never lets me get him. He always suddenly decides that we've done enough." Sephiroth laughed at that. I took a few bites of the sandwich trying to ignore the look he was giving me.

He put his arm around me and ate his sandwich. "While I am here we can go anywhere in the building above the thirty-ninth floor and below the presidents office." I almost spat out my sandwich.

"Are you serious? Hojo is allowing that?!" I asked. He just nodded surprised by my reaction. I just could not believe that I would be allowed to walk around the building other than when I have to go somewhere. Then I always have an escort of Sheila, Hojo, or some aid, plus a Turk.

"Yes. I thought you might like that, but I wasn't sure how much." I smiled at him. _I love this! I get to go for a walk now! _(That sounds terrible doesn't it? Like I am a dog or something.)_  
_

"I love it!" I had to give him a hug. He waited for me to let go. For a moment I did not want to. It felt good. After I realized that I let go and quickly finished my sandwich without saying a word.

"I'm glad. I know this will make it a little easier for you. It can be hard." He said. His voice trailed off towards the end. I suppose he was remembering something that he would refuse to tell me if I asked. He must have a lot of bad memories here.

I leaned against him slightly trying to bring him out of it. I felt him squeeze my side a little in response. I looked up and he was smiling at me. There was something in his eyes that made me blush. They were soft and inviting, but I could see a desire there. It was one that I was not ready to share.

Usher came back and I am sure that he noticed how we tried to pretend we had not been sitting as close as we were. He did not say anything about it, but proclaimed that we would resume training and Sephiroth was going to help.

Usher was not fully aware of the extent of training Sephiroth had had. It is different for everyone. Some people are not fast learners. He had already mastered most of the swords and he was an efficient gunman he told him. He stated that that is how the instructors describe him to the higher ups.

"Alright then it's time for you to start gun training and he is gong to help…by being the target." Usher said smiling. Sephiroth understood. The bullets were soft rubber and there was paint on them. Even if I did shoot him he would not really get hurt anyway. "I'll give you an overview on these three types today." He said indicating the guns lying on the table.

He told Sephiroth where to stand and then picked up a gun. "Stationary target first. I'll show you the basics and then we'll see how it goes from there." I nod.

He gives me a gun and then he shows me the right stance to use and informs me that most of the time they are a few inches off. He shows me all sorts of different techniques (mostly the ones that he thinks would benefit me) and makes me do them. He finishes by showing me all of the parts and then puts it back together so that I can see how it is done. He does this for each gun he brought. Altogether this takes about thirty minutes.

"It's important to know the parts well. You have to clean it every so often and it's a pain if you can't put it back together." He sighs. "It would be nice if we could go outside for this. There just isn't enough space in here." He said under his breath.

After a minute he tells me to aim at Sephiroth's right shoulder. I do so and wait for him to give me the signal. He holds his hand out so I can see it and then waves it. As told I fire and almost miss him. The bullet bounces off of his shoulder and leaves a small dot of red paint on his clothes.

(Note: He is not wearing his normal clothes. Usher gave him something else to wear because the paint is a pain in the ass to wash out. We are standing about ten yards from Sephiroth)

"Not bad. Try again and adjust for the error." Again I aim and this time I hit him square in the shoulder. He does not even seem to feel it. Now there is a nice red dot in the right place. "Good! Now again, but lets move back a little further."

We move back so that we are about thirty yards apart. He tells me to aim for a finger. "Any one of them." He is wearing gloves so he will not have to wash paint off his hands.

I do as I am told and I aim for his index finger. I was actually aiming a little to the left, but I manage to get it. He jerked his hand when it hit him. He was not expecting that. Usher gave him a grin and I shook my head. _So childish, but it's harder to hit smaller objects._

We did this for all of them. In the end we were one hundred yards apart and only I seemed to be surprised that it was so easy after I got the hang of it. Of course, I have never shot a gun before so I really would not know._  
_

"Ok. Now that you have a better feel for the gun we'll try a moving target. Do we need to move closer?" I shake my head. "Start at a walk." He told Sephiroth. He went to one side of the room and walked to the other side. He walked back and forth while Usher explained the best way to get a moving target.

"If a person is walking they are still a fairly easy target. If you wait for the right moment then you can get them without having too much to worry about. It varies from person to person. He has long legs so he can cross the distance in less time than most people. Follow him with the gun so you can get the timing."

I aim and follow him with the gun. I stay aimed slightly in front of his arm. "Now considering what I just said. You now need to aim further over than before. Are you adjusting for error?" I nod. "Ok. Now go over a little more and when you are ready fire."

I do and after a few seconds I fire when I feel confident. It misses and I realize that I need to compensate even more. He takes big steps. I try again as instructed and then fire. I did better this time. It bounced off his side when he swung back his arm.

Usher took that as a huge improvement and told me to do it again. I did and got almost the same result. To make sure it was not a fluke he made me do it again. Same result.

" See! Now that you have the hang of it it isn't so hard." He patted me on the back and Sephiroth stopped walking. "Now try running, but not too fast. I've heard the rumors." He said raising an eyebrow.

Sephiroth nodded and he followed the same route running. It seemed that the faster he moved the easier it was to get him. I hit him on the first try and Usher told him to run faster. I got him again. Two more tries and he ran faster each time. I managed to get him, but it was much harder.

He now has two red dots on both of his sides. Usher told him to run as fast as he could across the room. He wanted to see if I could get him. "Alright. You only get one shot at this so go ahead and get ready." He raised an arm and waited. On his signal Sephiroth would run. He swung his arm down and Sephiroth took off.

_Wow he's fast!_ I aimed way in front of him and fired hoping that maybe I'll get lucky and hit him. He moved so fast that I was surprised when he suddenly appeared on the other side of the room. _I couldn't have hit him. He's way too fast._

"Lets go have a look." Usher said taking the gun back. Sephiroth was looking himself over. He held out his left arm to show us the red streak the bullet had left. _I got him…sort of. _"Just missed him." He looked over to the wall and saw where it hit. "Not bad at all."

After Sephiroth changed back into his clothes we headed back upstairs to Hojo. Usher charismatically updated him on my progress and Hojo himself seemed quite impressed. I was surprised by how easy it was.

Once Sephiroth and me were alone he spoke up. "I was very impressed. You have a good eye." He said. I blushed a little.

"_I suppose you aren't completely useless. At least, you are good at something." _Jenova said. That surprised me more than anything. She had praised me and she hates me.

I had lain down and so had Sephiroth. He informed me that he would be staying with me tonight. He was lying behind me with his arms around me. I had started to get up, but he stopped me. I was not sure if I wanted to stay there next to him.

He pulled me closer to him making me a little bit uncomfortable. I could feel myself blushing and I could hear Jenova. She was not enjoying this. I think I felt more embarrassed by the fact that I am hardly wearing anything. Sephiroth was in pants only. I could feel him burying his face in my hair. That is when his hands started wandering around.

It took me a moment to realize that he was actually asleep. It was faint, but he was definitely snoring. That made me smile. For some reason that was more comforting than anything else. (My dad snored. Much louder than that though.) Unfortunately I could not move away or get up as I had planned. He has a death grip when he sleeps.

**Author:** I don't know much about guns...just how to aim and shoot. I saved myself from going into anything technical there. It wouldn't turn out well.


	18. Surprise

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 18 Surprise

Sephiroth visited me one morning and after talking for a while declared that he had a surprise for me, but it would not come until later. I groaned not liking the idea of waiting. He did not stay long after that. He had "preparations" to make.

The whole day seemed weird to me. I had expected Hojo to come in and interrupt us as he usually did. I learned from Sheila that he was actually gone for the day. Usher had decided that since he was gone he would take the day off so I did not have to go to training.

I was glad that they were both conveniently gone, but the only downer to this is now I have nothing to do until Sephiroth comes back to get me. I try to draw, but decide I am too bored for that. I need some kind of physical activity to do. The only thing I can think of is exercise.

I really do not want to do that. I do that all of the time and the stuff they do here in this world is ten times tougher than on earth. They want you to be like superman here. I was a little scared of them at first. Watching all of the guys exercise in there made me feel like a wimp. It hurt to do all of those activities.

Eventually I just started daydreaming about random stuff. That occupied me for a few hours before I got tired of it. I needed something else to do. It was barely past noon and Sheila brought me lunch. She decided to stay and eat with me. I guess I really looked that bored to her. I never asked her to join me. I doubt that I ever will.

She talked for a while making her eat slower and every once in a while I joined in the conversation. That made about an hour go by, but that was not really enough time.

I started to feel very annoyed that Sephiroth was taking so long to come back. I could not wait anymore. I literally started glaring at the door tapping my foot. I was frowning and sighing every few seconds. Jenova thought that was very amusing.

"_What if he doesn't come back?"_ She said. I ignored her and watched the door. Finally, he decided to come in and I was not very happy. Hardly anything to do for hours had made me feel a bit miffed and for his sake this "surprise" had better be good.

"What's that look for?" He asked. He must have noticed me glaring at him.

"I've been bored all day long!" I exclaimed. He smiled and kneeled down in front of me.

"Well…I think I can cheer you up." He held out a large box.

"What's this?" He did not even get to answer. I had already opened it. It was a dress. He held it up for me so I could look at it. It sparkled in the light and I thought it looked nice. Spaghetti-strapped and past my knees was perfect for my modest self. I was actually a little surprised that he would get something like that for me.

"Why don't you put it on and then we can go." He said turning around. I did and he handed me the shoes that had been in the box hidden by the dress.

When I was finished I told him to turn around and he stood there staring. "You look beautiful." He said quietly. He stared at me for a few more seconds then grabbed my hand to escort me out.

"Where are we going?" I noticed that we went to the elevator and we were going up to the top floor.

"It's a surprise."

_It's not much of one. We're going to the roof. _I thought. I was wrong though. We were going to the roof, but there was a helicopter waiting for us. Some Turk was in the pilots seat. _A helicopter? We're leaving Midgar?_

"Hurry up and get in!" The Turk yelled at us. We did and I watched as the dreary Midgar sky changed into a sunset. Without the pollution from the reactors (even though not all of them are built yet) the sky is completely clear. We set down in a grassy field near the mountain and I get out first. Sephiroth comes out holding what looks like a picnic basket.

"What's that?"

"Dinner." He stated. He picked the best spot and set everything up while I took the time to enjoy being outside. Funny how you miss things like that. Stuff like grass and the wind in your hair. I had taken off my shoes so I could feel the grass. It has been a few years since I've actually been outside. (Balconies do not count.)

Sephiroth scolded me a little for almost rolling around in the grass. He had just gotten me this dress. _I guess I can't ruin it, but I really want to roll on the ground._

We sat down and it looked like he had brought a three-course meal for us. I was hungry, but I was not even sure if I could eat that much. Most of it I cannot name and I am not going to try. It looks like food from earth, but I have learned that it is not the same. Although I swear they have chickens hidden around here somewhere.

For whatever reason I had not even thought about what was going on. It suddenly hit me. _We're on a date aren't we?_ I did not really want a response, but I got one anyway.

"_Yes."_ Jenova said laughing.

"Sephiroth?" We were sitting next to each other and I had been leaning on him. He looked over at me and put down his fork. "Why did you do this for me?"

He smiled and put an arm around me pulling me closer to him. "I know it is something trivial, but being out here makes you feel so much better. It was hard to arrange this. Hojo is stubborn thinking that I would never take you back. If we weren't being watched then I wouldn't. I am going to get you out of there." He started out speaking softly and then more sternly towards the end. He said the last sentence with conviction.

"Is that it?"

"No…." He paused and did not seem to know what to say. "I don't know exactly."

_If we weren't being watched...I'd show you._

I almost jumped. I had heard his thoughts! _Did I really here that? It couldn't have been my imagination! _The words had been so strong and clear it could not possibly be a trick.

We were sitting very close and there was still a lot of food left so we continued eating in silence. After that we watched the sunset. "So tell me…did you enjoy this?" He asked me. He was looking me right in the eyes. I smiled, but I felt lost. I was about to answer when we heard someone shouting at us. We both jumped a little startled.

"Hurry up! We have to go back now." The Turk was yelling at us. He started up the helicopter and I helped Sephiroth put up everything. In a few minutes we would be back in Midgar and back in the chamber…my prison.

Being outside had been great and we were both very reluctant to go back. It just felt so oppressive in there. Where as being outside made you feel free.

Once we were back we sat on the bed not talking. Sephiroth sighed and closed his eyes. I just stared at him eventually starting to daydream. Everything was outside and for a second I thought I really could feel the wind. I jumped out of it when I felt him touch me. It scared the heck out of me since I was not paying attention.

"Don't do that!" I shouted.

He just kept staring at me. I frowned and leaned against him. "I never answered you." That seemed to catch him a bit off guard. "I did enjoy it." I looked up at him and smiled. As soon as our eyes locked I felt something. Without thinking I hugged him and somehow managed to get into his lap without realizing it. I was closer to him now than I have ever been and he did not even seem to care. He put his arms around me and hugged me back tightly. For once I could tell that he felt comfortable doing it. He was not holding back.

I leaned back a little and put my arms around his neck. Our faces were almost touching. For a second I was not really sure what was going to happen next. He was pulling me even closer to him and I could not stop smiling. I liked this feeling. I wanted to be even closer, but at the moment I was not about to do that. That is not what I was concentrating on. I could feel his breath. We were both breathing harder and I could feel my heart pounding.

My first thought was that he would kiss me, but things turned out differently. I kissed him. I was surprised. I had not been thinking about it at all. I just did it. He did not protest or anything. Why would he? The more we kissed the more that feeling went away. After a minute it was almost gone, but now there was something else.

We stopped and looked at each other both of us smiling. _That's what I wanted to do then. _I heard him say. It was weird that I could hear some of his thoughts, but I chose to question it later. I sat there and was trying to decide what to do next, but it seemed he was going to decide for the both of us.

Before I knew it I was lying down and he was sitting on top of me. I was surprised since it had happened so fast. I felt him kissing my neck and working his way down. I suppose in a way I had given him permission. I could tell that Jenova was not too happy with this, but neither of us cared.

I smiled and let him continue. I knew that eventually I would have to stop him, but not right now. A few minutes later he sat up and seemed frustrated. One hand was lying on my breast and the other was holding up a strap to the dress. He was frowning at it as if it were in his way. I realized that that was it. He wanted them off. I had to draw the line there.

He had seen me naked before, but that was completely different. "That's enough." I told him. He gave me a disappointed look, but quickly saw that I was serious. He slowly moved so I could sit up, but he never looked away. I could hear Jenova silently congratulating me. She should not do that.

Things felt very different afterwards. I was not sure what to do now. He seemed to think the same thing. _He is going to leave in a few days so what would we do…make out everyday?_ I laughed a little and he gave me a weird look. He suddenly started laughing too as if he understood. I was curious. Could he really here me too?

_Sephiroth?_ I thought experimentally. I wanted to know for sure. Had I suddenly gained telepathy?

_Yes._ I was surprised to get an answer. When he said it I felt a wave of warmth. He smiled. _So you can hear me now._ I nodded and smiled slightly. _For how long?_

_Today. I heard what you were thinking at the picnic. "If we weren't being watched I'd show you."_ He quickly looked away embarrassed.

_I wish you hadn't heard that. I have a question though. Why did you do that? _I knew exactly what he meant. Why had I kissed him?

_I don't know. I was surprised too. I guess I wanted you to do it, but subconsciously thought you were taking too long._ I could hear him laughing both out loud and in his mind. I was laughing too. I felt a lot better too. Something about today felt healing. It was our day and nothing was going to mess it up.

_I wanted to before today, and there is so much more I would like to do. It just seems so hard. I don't understand all of the things you make me feel. I just enjoy being with you._

I was not sure how to answer. A lot of answers went through my head and I hoped that he had not heard any of them. _I feel the same way._ I settled on that. _I wonder if we could still talk to each other once you leave?_

_I hope so._

We stopped talking and went to bed. Like before he slept next to me. It did not bother me that much now. Not even the fact that he was still trying to take off the dress in his sleep. That only made me laugh.

For whatever reason I could not sleep. My mind kept thinking thoughts that somewhat bothered me. They did not feel like mine, but they were.

_He gets to leave this place while I stay here and suffer. _I kept saying that, but that is not how I feel. It is not his fault that I am here. Eventually I ended up facing him and in an effort to shut myself up I buried my face in his chest. I felt him hold me tighter in response. This did seem to quiet my mind and I finally went to sleep. That voice was still there though speaking ever so quietly. Nagging at me.

**Author:** Kinda sorta a dream I had. Didn't happen quite like this, but whatever. Although something weird did happen with this chapter. I swear I wrote it before, but I just cannot figure out what happened to that file...so I ended up rewriting it.


	19. Those that were forgotten

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

I apologize for not updating yesterday. Wasn't near a computer with internet and everyone in my apartment decided we were going to play DDR for four hours. I was too tired to do anything after that.

Ch. 19 Those that were forgotten

Sephiroth had promised me before going back to training that he would be here for my birthday and he would bring me a present. He held true to that by coming a day early. It has been seven months since I last saw him.

We did try talking to one another mentally, but it was harder than I thought it would be. Since I did just start doing this I missed a lot of what he was saying and I had to figure out how to direct my thoughts better. If I didn't do that he wouldn't hear me at all. After a few months of doing so I got better and by the time he came back we could talk clearly to one another (most of the time).

He mention that he could already hear most of my thoughts even when he was in Junon before. He did not do that much since he felt it was invading my privacy so he generally relied on Jenova to tell him things. (Jenova is not exactly reliable though since she completely hates me.)

One drawback is that I had to find out when I should talk to him, which meant I waited for him to talk. It was harder for him to concentrate while he was training and he just decided that I should wait for him to speak unless it was important. He said, "I don't want someone else to accidentally hear our conversation." I know he had someone in particular in mind. He would not give a name. It made me wonder exactly who he meant. Who else could do this?

He also said that some "friends" would be coming back with him. He did not sound to happy when he said that. He was not sure if he would actually introduce them to me or not. It was going to be a short visit and he only got to come because of orders.

I was actually happy to see him. He was now in first class and I had started to miss him a lot. Now that I understood better my feelings I wanted to see him more. He had come back later in the day so we ended up talking for a little while and then going to sleep. On my birthday, he brought in a huge box.

When I first saw it, I thought he had gotten me this huge present, but there was another box inside. There was also a pair of leather boots in there. I put them on the ground beside me and continued with the next box. This one was wrapped in a gold and silver bow. It was pretty, but also a joke.

He sat there watching quietly looking somewhat amused. I laughed at the first one and frowned at the second one. I cannot believe he actually did this! The third box proved to be it. This one was still big. I was so curious I practically tore through it. I just stared at it for a moment when it was finally opened. All of that and he bought me clothes.

I was very surprised. "Try them on." He said quietly. He looked very interested to see how they would look on me. I felt very embarrassed now. I did not want him to see me change. Before I did not care, but I also did not have a choice. I forced him to turn around and he did object, but not for long.

The boots and the clothing were black and red. The shirt was v-neck and short sleeve. The pants had six red pockets and were almost like my old army pants. There was also a trench coat in there. It was blood red. I wonder where he got all of these. After putting on the boots and lacing them up I was done and he was allowed to turn around. (None of this includes undergarments. That was too much for him.) "What do you think?"

"I like it!" I pranced around in my new duds showing off how wide the range of movement was. "Did you have to put them in so many boxes?"

"Not my idea. I just thought it would be…different." He would not say anything else. I was definitely happy with it though and I ended up hugging him (had to jump to do it though). To him I must have looked like an excited schoolgirl. He looked relieved to see that I liked my present.

"Thanks, Sephiroth." I backed away and sat down. Sheila decided to grace us with her presence and she busted in asking what was going on. "Sephiroth got them for me." I was not going to tell her that it was my birthday. It can just be a nice gesture for now. Sephiroth on the other hand did not care whether she knew or not.

"It's her birthday." I glared at him and he almost laughed. Sheila flipped out.

"It's your birthday! Why didn't you tell me long ago?" You have already answered that! "You've been here for over three years. I could have given you presents. I would've, but I didn't want to give birthday presents when it wasn't your birthday." She kept going and Sephiroth was beginning to realize what he had done. This is why I do not talk to her very often! She will not shut up! Finally, she leaves to go buy me a present and Sephiroth apologizes for that.

"Don't worry about it." He sits next to me and leans against the glass sighing. "I wonder what she will get me. I guess I have to pretend that I like it no matter what." Sephiroth had his eyes closed and I figured taking a nap would be fine. She might be gone for a few hours and Hojo leaves us alone when he visits.

I lean back too and close my eyes. Just before I go to sleep, I feel him put his arm around me. I do not mind at all. I do not dream and I wake up to Sheila returning. I then realize that I had been leaning against Sephiroth. He might have done that.

"Here! I know you'll like it!" She put the gift in my lap and stood with her hands on her hips. I slowly open it and it was not at all, what I was expecting. I thought she might just get me more art supplies (she has already gotten me a few months worth) or something girly.

It was a pair of boots. Black leather boots that zipped up the middle and tied in the front. They were a lot like my old boots. They were real leather she told me. "Nothing fake about them!" She said. I honestly did not know what to say. "Do you like it?" She said after a few minutes.

"Yeah." I did not sound convinced. I was in awe.

"They are the best ones I could find at an affordable price. They are very sturdy so I am sure that they will last you a long time. You can wear them during training." She smiled looking proud of her gift. "So how old are you now?" I was not going to answer.

"Sixteen." Sephiroth answered for me. I glared at him again. She did not need to know that! She gasped and flipped out again.

"You two are the same age?! I could have done something really special for your birthday if I had known that." She finished her tirade and left wishing me a happy birthday before closing the door.

"Wow. I was not expecting this from her." I put them on and walked around a little feeling them out. They are nice.

"She knows you better than you think. Her job is to know everything about us and be our 'mother'." He sighed and leaned against the glass closing his eyes. I had heard a quiet "hmph" in my head when he said that.

I try going to sleep, but he insists on annoying me. Poking me in the side and tickling me. I can tell that he is trying hard to be gentle so he does not accidentally hurt me. "Stop it!" He did after a while and we went to sleep lying next to each other.

I woke up and Sephiroth had not left yet. He was leaning over me staring. "Do you have to do that?" He smiled shaking his head. Sheila brought us breakfast and according to her, it was extra special since she sort of missed my birthday. We ate in silence and she came back in to get our trays, but stopped to say something.

"Sephiroth, you had better get ready to go."

He sighs and gets up to follow her out stopping just short of the door. He starts to say something, but stops. He does not look back, but leaves hastily. I decide to change to make sure that Hojo will not take my new clothes. An aid comes in beckoning me to follow him to the lab a few minutes later. I sit on the table as I normally do and learn that I am not here alone.

Sephiroth and two others are there. They are all frowning. One of them is injured. He has dark hair and has a very unused looking sword strapped to his back. The other man wore a red leather jacket and was staring at me very intently.

I know very little about them both, but I do know who they are. Genesis and Angeal. The aids start healing Angeals wounds and Genesis comes over to me. I ignore him watching the aids heal Angeal. I had no idea that they could use magic. G looks at me closely and I frown at him.

"What?" I said it sternly trying to get him to leave me alone, but that only seems to give him permission to speak to me.

"So you are the one I've been hearing about. Lilia, right?" I nod and he continues looking me over. "I am very pleased to me meet you. I am Genesis Rhapsodos. You may call me G." He bows slightly making me wonder where in the world he got such good manners. He obviously did not learn it from Hojo. After a moment, I realized he was staring at all the wrong places. I ignore it for now.

"G?" I give him a weird look. Look at my face smartass!

"Yes. Everyone calls me that." He looked over at Hojo and glared at him. Then a second later he was smiling at me all of the hatred from before was gone replaced by an all too cheery mood. Sephiroth seems agitated by this. He does not seem angry that he is talking to me, but he is watching us like a hawk.

"Ok." I hesitantly stand up and shake his hand as he offers it. The strangest feeling comes over me. I want to run away. All of my senses are saying that he is dangerous. I feel cold and frozen in place. He says something, but I cannot hear him. He lets go and repeats himself.

"Did you hear me?" He does not wait for me to answer. "The injured one over there is Angeal." He leans in closer. "Happened while we were sparring. He should have used that sword to defend himself instead of casting a spell." The aids had finished and Angeal came over to us.

"I heard that. It would be a shame to sully my sword. Besides, my magic is very powerful. If you weren't so cheap I would have gotten you." He said crossing his arms. He looked at me briefly and smiled. "It's nice to meet you." He said bowing. Where do they get these manners? Angeal on the other hand seems to show me more respect than G. He does not take the time to "look" at me.

"Likewise." Hojo interrupted us telling them they could go and making me lie down on the table stripping me and strapping me down. They did not leave right away, but Angeal was the first to go. G waited for Sephiroth who came over to say goodbye to me.

"Try and stay away from G." He whispered to me before going.

I woke up a few hours later in the lab feeling terrible. I could barely see and my stomach hurt. At least I think it is my stomach. Everything felt weird. I could hear people around me. They were not talking so I assumed they were just the aids. I heard Hojo come in and say a few things to them. I opened my eyes a few times trying to see, but the blur refused to go away. What has he done to me now?

Without warning pain shot through me and I am sure that I screamed. I opened my eyes and for whatever reason I could see clearly. An aid was standing beside me holding bandages and another one stood on the other side taking off the bandages that had been put on me. They were covered in blood and he had accidentally touched to wound.

Hojo came in to see what the noise was about and seeing that I was in a great deal of pain gave me a shot that I hoped would help. After waiting a few minutes for the drugs to kick in they changed the bandages allowing me to see what had been done to me. It was hard to tell from my point of view, but it had obviously been surgery or some sort. I just went back to sleep hoping that when I woke up again I would feel better.

I woke up in my cell lying in my bed. I tried to get up unsuccessfully and then gave up. I felt too heavy. Sheila came in, brought me dinner, and had to help me eat it. She talked the entire time telling me how sorry she felt. I was glad when she was gone.

It was not even tomorrow yet and I could not fall asleep. It took hours for me to go to sleep again. I slept all night long and did not dream. I suppose my mind is too tired to annoy me with nightmares.

I wake up late in the day and find that Sheila had brought my breakfast, but decided not to wake me up. I almost fall out of the bed trying to pick it up and slowly eat it hoping that it will make me feel better. I do not even bother to put the tray on the ground.

I just lie down and close my eyes waiting for Hojo to come like usual. I do not expect him to let me rest just because I can barely move. Sheila comes back and informs me that I get to sleep all day long and tomorrow as well! I am happy with this of course and I turn over to go to sleep.

After two days of sleeping Sheila, who informs me that I have to get up and move around, wakes me. She says it is time for me to start my after surgery recovery. I ask what kind of surgery he did, but she does not answer. She either does not know or does not want to tell. I am too tired to tell either way.

She helps me up and helps me to the door where I latch onto the wall after almost falling over. She takes me up to the lab where a few tests are done and she scribbles down notes in one of her notebooks.

"Alright, it will take a while for you to recover so I have planned it out for you. For the next week or so…depending on how well you recover, I will be taking care of you." She grabs my arm and leads me out to the elevator. She takes me once again to the staff cafeteria and sits me down at the same table as before.

She brings me a plate of food and we eat. She finishes first, but I am still recovering. Part of me hurts and the other part is numb from the drugs. I wince at just about everything I do, but it takes twice as long to do anything. I feel like crying, but I hold that back.

There were two Turks standing by as before, but they seemed more relaxed this time. I guess seeing me in this condition means that to them I am less threatening. "Just ignore them. It's a precaution." She whispers to me. I nod slowly trying not to make it hurt. It does not work and I wince at the pain. "Take it easy." I growled at her slightly.

I spent most of the day exercising. Then she took me to the lab for a mako bath. It burned worse than ever and around the stitches, I could feel it seeping in. It hurt a lot, but I did not let it bother me. The pain has to go away somehow and I knew the mako bath would make me feel better eventually.

After a few days of "recovery", I actually did feel better. The pain had gone away, but the scar had not healed yet. Sheila said that I had to be fully recovered before they did anything else to me. Funny how she says that. Sounds like she cares a little more than she should. She is always telling me how sorry she is for what has been happening to me.

After a week and a half, I was mostly recovered. I was kind of dreading it though. Now Hojo had license to experiment on me without having to worry about the stitches, which were taken out the day before. Hojo did not do much. It almost felt like the first few days I was here. I guess you could say he was going easy on me just to make sure.

The next day was just like any other day. I still felt a little under the weather. I would like to find out what he did to me. Strangely enough I got the chance to find out, but that hope was dashed as I realized that the computers here had nothing. He must keep the files somewhere else.

I find out that I am correct. I had tried to make sure he would not notice anything out of place. I acted all innocent (which does not mean much) and watched him bring in a laptop and connect it. He stares at it intently for a few minutes typing away and frowning.

Once he was done doing whatever he turned his attention to me. I had not noticed before, but he was in a fowl mood today. Even his aids gave him odd looks. He did the usual and at the end of the day, Rufus visited us. He was very talkative today. Most of it was directed towards me and Hojo kept telling him to leave me alone.

"You still refuse to talk to me huh. I am the presidents son you should at least give me your name." Rufus said with his arms crossed. Dark nation had come with him and was leaning against his master's leg. He is so pretty. He noticed me staring at him and kneeled down to pet him. "You can pet him if you want."

I hesitantly reach out and pet him. He leans into it letting me know he does not mind. "Would you leave, boy? You're interfering and bothering us all!" Hojo is pissed now. I smile at Dark nation who seems to be enjoying the attention.

"You like nation huh?" Rufus says ignoring Hojo. I nod. You annoy me, but Dark Nation is fine. He stands up looking thoughtful. He starts to say something, but Hojo does not give him the chance. He grabs him by the collar and drags him out of the lab. Nation follows and Hojo closes the door.

"Insufferable brat!" Well there goes my few minutes without Hojo touching me.


	20. A moment with the baddies

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 20 A moment with the Baddies

**Part 1: **Message from the other side

Siren made her way to the roof feeling sick. She had to report to that puppet of Enshii's. She hated those things so. They were creepy. She had heard that the trapped souls had been his comrades once, but they had betrayed him. So he punished them, by forcing them to serve him in those bodies of wood.

She carefully made her way there avoiding anyone that might think it suspicious that she was going all the way up to the president's office. She was an aid so she did not think it was that suspicious. A few Turks passed her by and she was in the clear so far. Once on the roof she found it waiting for her. The same one he always sent to do his errands. _Why is he so lazy?_ She thought.

It bowed as if it had manners. She could feel Enshii gazing at her through its eyes. She gave a short report and it nodded. It handed her a letter that she knew were orders from Scythe. The puppet could not sustain speech so this is the only message she had expected to get.

She felt depressed now that she was stuck on Gaia. She was away from her beloved Scythe. She hated being here and wanted to leave as soon as possible. She missed him. She walked back down to the elevator and read the letter on the way to her office.

_Stay there until I give the word to take her.  
Don't harm her in any way.  
Scythe wants her unscathed for her part in all this.  
It is taking longer than expected.  
It seems the dead have been busy and are protecting some of the other ones as well.  
Link and Glaed have been sent to find them._

She read it several times before the elevator stopped on her floor. She came out in a daze. _Stay? I don't want to stay!_ She screamed in her mind. She ripped up the letter and made sure to get rid of it. There was a message on the machine and she listened to it.

Hojo wanted her to report to the lab. She loathed that man. She loathed everyone on this miserable world and especially the girl that had caused her to be here. She had been curious as to why she had come here at all. Travel between all of the worlds is quite difficult if you do not know how.

_So the dead helped her cross over to this world to protect her from us. Clever._

She went to the lab as she was told and found three men in the room. One of them was injured with a large gash on his side. She sighed not feeling up to this. She only knew one of them. Sephiroth. He stood there frowning at the two.

She did not see the other aid and wondered where he had gone. Hojo told her to begin healing his wounds until he got back. He had sent him to get the girl. She came in shortly after and while healing the man called Angeal she listened as the man in red talked to the girl.

She glanced over at Sephiroth and saw that he was not pleased by their conversation. The man in red called himself G. She felt something strange about that man. _He could be more trouble for us than Sephiroth. He's more powerful than him._

Once Angeal was healed he went over to G to end the conversation. Apparently they had somewhere to be. They left and she watched Sephiroth give the girl a long goodbye. _He's quite taken with her._ Siren thought. She knew that could also be a potential problem.

Hojo had already prepared the girl. Siren stared at her sleeping and wondered why. Why was she so much trouble? He pushed over a tray of surgical equipment. Siren was not sure if she like what he was doing. If he damages her Scythe will kill me!

**Part 2: **In another world

Glaed walked along the hallway making her way through Balamb Garden. It had taken them a considerable amount of time and effort to find their target. She had disguised herself to fit in against her own wishes. It had been his idea. She was wearing clothes more befitting of someone from this world, but had refused to remove hers though they were covered in blood.

She looked over at her companion and glared. He too wore similar clothes. Most of the time he looked messy. Even now his hair was a mess and barely fitted into a pony-tail. Both of them had found that these people were very similar to them even though they were from different worlds. That made it much easier for them to fit in.

"Why are we hiding?" She whispered angrily.

"We don't need to waste time fighting everyone." He stated. She groaned and they were making their way to the training center. From what they had heard that is where the target should be. Hopefully they would not miss them and then they could leave this world quickly.

They made their way to the training center, but had to wait for the class to finish. They silently observed them picking out their target easily enough. This person would have otherwise been unimportant in this world, but she had a great significance to them. They could see that she was a skilled fighter. The exercises were fairly simple though.

Link and Glaed stood in the back watching patiently for the right moment to step in. Glaed was becoming annoyed with all of the waiting. There were only ten people in here and she knew she could easily handle them.

"These humans are so weak. Why can't I just kill them?" She mumbled to herself. Link has sensitive hearing so he heard every word.

"Because it would be unwise and a waste of time. We've already wasted enough time on that other one." Glaed nodded. She had to agree with him this time. They had spent a lot of time on a lost cause for now. "They are becoming bold."

Their last target had been very slippery. He was from Spira. Her, Link, and Dyrem had gone there to find him. She was the only one in their group that wore a dress. She had once been a summoner and even though she had abandoned that she had not changed her attire. A silly way to hold onto ones memories Glaed thought.

Dyrem had taken the lead seeing as she had lived in that world until Scythe liberated her. She had shown a great amount of disgust for that world. Glaed understood completely. She felt much the same about her world, but they had imprisoned her in that place after all. All of them had their reasons for joining him.

They found him easily enough. Dyrem approached him first. They had wanted to make things go smoothly. It seemed to them that someone or rather a lot of someone's were trying to impede their progress. They had already done so with the Earth woman and had chosen to do so now.

Dyrem tried to sound nice and inviting. Unfortunately he had been suspicious and chosen to decline her offer. She was knowingly ticked off. Link and Glaed stepped in immediately to catch him. Before they could reach him he suddenly disappeared. They were left standing in Macalania wondering where exactly their prey could have gone to.

Glaed had been the most disappointed. She was looking forward to the events after the extraction. She could have had him to play with for a while. She had already had her fun with the boy and now he was nothing more than sliced up pieces. She really wanted to add his blood to her clothes.

Dyrem and Link did not exactly feel that way about it. They were disappointed that the target had slipped away and all of them feared their return to the Abyss. They knew that if they went back and told Scythe of their failure they would all be punished. They only hoped that some kind of dismemberment would not be involved. It took a long time to regenerate limbs.

Glaed forced those thoughts aside and focused on their present target. The class had ended and everyone was leaving. She decided to let Link do the talking. He did better with people than she did. She hated them so and only relished in their destruction. A slow and very agonizing death.

The girl nearly walked past them when Link struck a conversation with her. Glaed was actually surprised at how easily he did it. He seemed to know her very well and she knew that he had never actually met her. They talked politely to each other and Glaed felt a sickening feeling. She hated this politeness. Finally, Link reached the point of the conversation. They were alone and now it was time to strike.

"Would you like to see it?" He asked her. He had been telling her of some extraordinary thing that lay somewhere in this room. Glaed knew that he had quickly made it up, but it seemed to work. She was interested and wanted to see whatever it was. That had not been something she had listened to.

The girl was convinced and they began walking to this made up object of interest. Link and Glaed were prepared. As soon as they were in the right spot they would simply take her. By the time she figured out what was going on it would be too late.

They stood on each side of her and Link looked around cautiously assuring her that he only wanted to keep this as their little secret. She agreed with that and without warning Glaed knocked her up side the head. She took great pleasure in it too. She had been waiting for the opportunity to do something.

Link threw her over his shoulder and they walked off into the mist. Walking in that white wasteland they both felt something following them. Glaed growled and looked around seeing nothing. "Hurry up."

Both of them quickened their pace and so did their follower. Suddenly they reached the Abyss and felt that they were in the clear from their invisible pursuer. Glaed felt a little perturbed by this. She had never had that feeling before.

They brought the girl to Scythe and were not allowed to stay for the scene. Glaed hated that. She so liked to watch their agony. Scythe sent them away to go and attempt to capture the lost one. He felt a twinge of annoyance towards them, but held it at bay knowing that they have and will be useful to him.

They girl lie on the ground and Scythe stood nearby starring at the orb. He watched this thing and though he knew the others could not possibly understand what this was he knew. He had known it when he first stumbled upon it. "Soon you will be whole and obey me." He whispered to it.

The girl groaned and her eyes fluttered open. Pathetic creature. He thought. He looked down at her and saw the confusion on her face. _She has no idea how important she is. No idea that it's about to be stripped from her._ He smiled at that thought. The smile made her shudder.

Immediately she knew that she was in trouble. Whoever he was she could see the cruelty in his eyes. That ill intent that told her he would not hesitate to kill her if the need be. For the first time in her life she had no idea what to do. All of the training to become a seed and now it all seemed so useless.

For whatever reason she was curious about him and his plans for her. Why was she here in this place of darkness? What was the thing that he looked at so intently? She could not help but wonder. She dared not move or voice a question. She could not bear to look into his eyes.

Without warning he reached down and grabbed her by the neck. His grip was so strong she could scarcely breathe. She tried to pry his hand from her throat, but soon realized that he was far too strong. However, she did not give up. She instinctively fought back fearing for her life. She wanted to live and go back home to become a seed, but now she saw that dream dashed as his grip tightened.

He was mouthing words and gazing past her at the orb behind her. White spots clouded her vision and she realized that she was in a great deal more pain than he was causing. She let out a blood curdling scream, but that used up the little oxygen she had left and was short lived.

She could not gasp for air and could no longer see. She wanted desperately to scream, but could not find the air for it. She knew that no matter how much she screamed the pain would never lessen. She stopped fighting completely as the effort became too much for her. Suddenly she felt empty. Something was missing and she had no idea what that was.

Scythe looked at the girl watching her final moments as she slipped away. Had things gone as planned then she would have been allowed to live for a while. He knew Glaed would have liked that and to tell the truth so would he. Like her he enjoyed suffering and pain in others.

This job was done and he released his vice grip on her and let her fall. He gazed at the orb that called itself The Abyss. _You are the beginning and the end of things. And soon you will end everything._

**Author:** Since I introduced Link and Dyrem I put a pic of them up. I don't really like Dyrem so don't expect her to be around for very long. Its kind of sad that I made her up and I don't like her. I still have yet to come up with the others that will eventually be with them. Haven't had time to draw for the story. Link will be up first then her.

Don't know how regular my updates will be, but I'll still update every week until the quarter ends. My roommate doesn't want to stay tomorrow so I had to update today and I'm not going to do work all weekend like she will.

( Can I kill my teachers? Cause they are the reason I've had no time for anything. Sleep is included. I hate this quarter and wish with all my heart that it will end. Maybe I'll make up someone like them and Glaed can kill them to make me feel better. )


	21. Possession

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 21 Possession

A few months later and my training is going well. I am now better than a third class and on my way to being considered at second-class strength. Usher seems very impressed. Hojo calls this a technicality. He was told to do this. I guess being in Soldier will be a fall back if this project gets snubbed.

Rufus is actually getting more annoying. He brings Dark Nation with him all the time now that he knows I like him. I do not mind that as much. He cannot talk and therefore is not annoying. He is content to be petted and lay at your feet.

Rufus on the other hand is too clingy for me. He visits me in the chamber almost everyday. He got "daddies" permission and that makes Hojo angry.

His first visit was ok, but unwanted. He brought candy. I love candy. (Seriously, who doesn't?) I could not just say "no" to candy. It's impossible. He had started out by sitting on Sephiroth's bed. Nation came over to me wanting my attention. I smiled and petted him on the head as a hello.

Rufus immediately started talking. He was trying to make me talk to him, but annoying me will not work. I can tune out annoying people. He starts out by telling me about himself and asking me things in an attempt to make this a conversation.

I hold out and end up daydreaming. In my daydreams people talked loudly and there is occasionally music so that was more than enough to drown him out. He had to ask most of his questions a few times before I actually heard them. I would not grace him with an answer and strangely enough Jenova was giving me kudos. I am sure she only wished I would do this with Sephiroth. (Never!)

"You know it's rude to ignore people." He said to me. Somehow I got the feeling that he really did not understand that. _Rude. It is not my fault that you are boring!_

I resorted to petting nation again. He seemed to enjoy it and may have actually gotten annoyed at his master. When he finally decided to leave nation lagged behind. He wanted to stay and it was so cute! I actually laughed at him when he tried to push him out the door. I was a little surprised by how tolerant he is. He did not try to do anything at all. Most of the animals I have seen would not have acted like that. They would have been all over their owner.

The only good thing about his visits is that it keeps me busy. When he is there I stop thinking about Sephiroth. I worry about him when he is gone and I would like it if he would tell me what happens. He refuses no matter how much I bother him. Although he has gotten mad at me once for ignoring him when he talked to me. I was trying to drown out Rufus and ended up doing that to everything.

One of his visits he came with jewelry and other crap I hardly wear. What would I do with it? I am not allowed to go anywhere. I quickly let him know I think it is crap and the incessant chatter is starting to get to me. I may do something like Hojo did and blow up in his face. In my case there might not be any restraint and he could end up dead.

That makes me smile. _He'd be quiet then._ I think to myself. I realize I must look very evil right now because for the first time he has stopped talking and is giving me a weird look. "What's that face for?"

I choose to vocalize this for him. Silence does not seem to do the trick so lets try some untamed rage. "Honestly, I can't stand you." I say calmly the smile never leaving me. I can feel something slipping into my voice something that is not me at all. "I want to kill you. Preferably ripping you to shreds until you cannot speak anymore."

My voice sounded different. Deeper and harsher than it has ever been. There was venom in it that was not mine at all. I felt the words and I really wanted to act on them. I had not realized it, but I was standing up and I had walked halfway over to him. I was looking right into his eyes and he looked afraid.

Nation had positioned himself in front of me and he was in a defensive position. If I did anything to his master he would not even hesitate to kill me, but I got the feeling that in my current state he could not do it. This feeling was lasting too long. It was growing and consuming me. I started to feel afraid.

_What's happening? I should not feel like this? _I could not hear Jenova there at all. In fact, she was completely absent. I could not feel her at all. She was not there. This worried me a lot. _She should have answered…or at least said something._

I started screaming at myself and I felt my body jerking. I was trying to take a step back. I figured that if I got away from him then it would stop. Rufus was standing and now inching his way to the door. Out of nowhere my shadow appeared behind him stopping his slow escape.

That actually frightened him more than anything. He had not expected something like that. I was actually surprised myself. _Why is my shadow doing this? _Suddenly I felt myself step back and then I stumbled and fell to my knees.

All I could do was shake. Whatever had been controlling me was gone. I was crying and blubbering, but I managed to get out "I'm sorry." I said it over and over and I only looked up once to see if he was still there. My shadow was nowhere to be seen and he was standing by the door dumbstruck. Nation sat close to him knowing that the danger had passed.

He was weary of me, but he seemed to sense that I was in distress. Slowly he came over to me and rubbed his face against my head. Shakily I looked up and put my arms around him. It felt good to do that. He must have known that I needed it. I could faintly hear Rufus walk over to us. He touched nation and I suppose that was his signal to move aside.

I felt him put his arms around me and he leaned me against his chest. I was still trying to process what had happened and why. I ignored what he was doing and let myself cry. It was the best thing I could do. Sometimes you just need to cry and this was definitely one of those times.

I do not know how long we stayed like that and it really did not matter. Finally I pushed him away and wiped my face. He smiled trying to cheer my up a little, but after that who would feel calm. It is hard to remain calm when you do not have control over your own body. _What if it happens again? What will I do?_

"I'm sorry. I don't know what happened." I said to him.

"It…." He sighed. "It's ok. You were really scary though." He said laughing slightly. I could not laugh with him. It's not funny. I glare at him and stand up.

"I think I want to be alone now." He nodded understanding and left taking nation with him. Nation seemed weary of me and would not let me pet him goodbye. That made me sad. I had not meant to do that. Sure Rufus annoyed me to no end, but I would never actually try and kill him. I am sure that if I had not stopped I would have done it though. I shivered at the thought.

That actually scared me more than anything. I have thought about it and honestly there was only one person on earth that I would not have felt bad for killing. One of my step dads. My mom had horrible taste in men and always seemed to pick the bad ones.

In this world the only person I would not mind killing is Hojo…probably some other people too, but not as much.

The problem with all of this is I would never actually do something like that. I am starting to think that this place and the things that Hojo is doing to me are making me like this. I am changing into a more hateful person. My thoughts are much darker than I remember them being and that scares me a little.

Will this get worse? Will I eventually start hating everything the way Sephiroth did on the game? A voice in my head said yes and I was hoping that it was wrong.

I suddenly realized that I was stressing myself out too much and I needed to calm down. If I keep thinking like that I will end up like that. _Think Positive._ I though. I started breathing slowly in and out hoping that would help me a little. A little meditation to help me calm down and focus on something else...something better.

I felt Jenova come forward curiously. _"What is it? Afraid of a little killing?"_ She said mockingly. I chose not to answer her. Anything she has to say to me right now is irrelevant. _"Eventually someone will have to die."_

_Not by me._ I said in answer.

"_Yes…by you. Deep down you know you want to…and don't think that you can't." _She said. I ignored her trying to think about something else, but she was very persistent. She started showing me images of people dying. Eventually it started to feel too real. Instead of someone else killing them it was me.

I was the one with the sword cutting through their chests and hacking off limbs. Their blood was on me and no matter how much they begged I would not spare them. I began to wonder who this person was. Who were those people that she was showing me? Had she done this or was this from some other world she may have visited a long time ago?

There was no sound to any of this, but I did not need it. Her laughter was enough to make me feel horrible. I felt bad for even have seen these things at all. After a while this was all I could see. My eyes had been closed, but even when they were open (or when I thought they were open) I could see it.

The person (me) looked down at their (my) hands. For a moment I heard laughter that I knew was not hers. It was mine. _No it isn't._ I heard someone say. It was not Jenova, but at the same time I felt warmth all over me. It was familiar.

_Sephiroth!_ I shouted back. I was sure it was him and I was very relieved to hear his voice. I could feel myself crying.

_Push her back, Lilia. She can't hurt you._ He said. I found it hard to believe him at the moment. I could still see those people dying in front of me. I felt him (more or less) wrapping his arms around me protectively. The images started to fade and in my minds eye I could see him. He was trying very hard to help me.

He smiled at me and then faded. _Don't worry about her._ He said. I nodded feeling much better. I opened my eyes and looked around sighing. That bit of drama was over and I was feeling tired now.

**Author:** Starting to go a little deeper to the affects of being a test subject and the relationship they have. There is a later chapter that goes much deeper into this and I'm not sure exactly when I'll get to it. I keep adding stuff in between.

I may even make up a back story for Jenova just for the hell of it. Maybe turn it into a dream or something like that. Also, I will eventually start going into more detail about Scythe and all them and what they are doing and how Lilia fits into it. Its sort of complicated and I still have to work out the details.


	22. For a moment alone

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 22 For a moment alone

Three months after my little episode I was told that Sephiroth and some others were being stationed in Midgar for a while. The rebels are getting more brazen and they still have yet to finish all of the reactors. Although they are saying that there is only one more to build. Sheila says the rebels are delaying construction on several things, but they have not yet dared come near the building.

Sephiroth tells me that even though he is here he cannot come see me. That makes me feel a bit sad. Usher had left again, but he had a legitimate reason. His baby was sick and Mirrin wanted him to come take them to the doctor. (That way she could get in for free.) All I could do was hope he gets better and go back to the chamber to do…nothing.

_I'm bored! Usher's gone and I have nothing to do. I wish you could come see me. _I said to Sephiroth. I know he told me not to do that, but after an hour of boredom I could not help myself. I felt him laugh slightly in response, but he told me to wait. He went off duty in an hour and maybe he could try and come.

A few hours later….

_I'm coming, but not alone. They wanted to come._ He said suddenly. I was a little angry that he had waited so long to say something.

_What happened to I'll be done in an hour? It's been three! _I sort of yelled back.

_Sorry._ He did not sound sincere at all.

A few minutes later Sephiroth came in with Angeal, Zack, and G following close behind. I smiled at them and stopped when I saw G. _Why is he here?_

_I couldn't stop him. _Sephiroth said frowning. He made sure that only I saw that. Angeal greeted me bowing and then sat down on Sephiroth's bed and G followed suit, but felt the need to touch me in the process. I could not refuse though. I did not want to seem impolite, but I am sure that the look on my face said I hated it.

Again like before I felt strange. My body wanted to run, but could not and I was glad that it only lasted a moment. Thank goodness Zack was eager to meet me. He practically shoved him out of the way. G went and sat by Angeal and Sephiroth had already sat down next to me.

"I'm Zack Fair. It's nice to finally meet you." He said winking at Sephiroth. He bowed not wanting to look dumb since the other two had done the same. All three of them sat together and looked around the chamber. Each of them wore a different expression none of them pleasant.

"It seems a bit unfair that you must dwell in a place like this." Angeal said. Everyone nodded. This is not what I was hoping for at all. I wanted him to come alone.

All of them were focused on a different thing. Zack kept looking at Sephiroth and me smiling. Angeal looked at everything. G was focused on the door. He looked at it intently for a long time before looking back at us. _What is he thinking?_ I decide to try and find out, but carefully. He might be able to hear Sephiroth and me when we talk. Maybe he is the one Sephiroth did not want to hear us?

_Be careful. He can and he is good at hiding things._ Sephiroth warned. I could tell that he did not want me doing that, but he was not going to try and stop me. Carefully I focused on him, but tried not to stare at him while I did it. It felt like forever before I heard something. A murmuring in his mind.

For whatever reason it was hard to focus on him. Angeal and Zack thought pretty loud. Mostly it was Zack. He was so excited to be here he was almost shouting. I did not even realize that Sephiroth was keeping everyone preoccupied. They were talking and he was doing a good job of keeping them from talking to me. It had only been a minute though.

I felt something blocking his mind so that no one could get in. _He must have barriers that he put up to keep people out._ I felt like I was standing in front of a tall wall that went on forever. There is no door and no way around it. _I suppose he has to let me in._ I almost decide to give up when I notice a crack in the wall (barrier).

_A week spot._ I thought. I poked at it cautiously and noticed that it started breaking. I almost wondered whether I should continue. If he knew I was doing this it could be bad for me. I had managed to break through and I stepped past the barrier, but only a few steps in. I wanted to be close to it just in case he found me. It felt dense in his mind. I heard him thinking about the door. How it opened. Anyone that wanted in had to have a card though there is an emergency button, but you need a password for that.

_This would be much simpler if Sephiroth weren't in the way. _He kept thinking. I heard that over and over again and I was beginning to get a bad feeling. I needed to stop. I turned around ready to leave, but something stopped me. _So you can do that too. _ He said.

I felt him tugging on my mind trying to have a look, but I struggled and made it hard for him. Since I was less experienced with this I found it hard to fight back. Sephiroth actually stepped in to help me. He let go reluctantly and I focused on the floor. My head hurt a lot from that and I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. I quickly wiped them away so no one would see. G quickly excused himself and left very quickly.

_It's not over yet. _He said to me. Angeal and Zack watched him go wondering why he was leaving so soon. They had only been there for around ten minutes, but that little venture in his mind felt like forever.

"What's his problem?" Zack said. Everyone let out a sigh. The room felt better now that he was gone. There was less of an oppressive feeling.

_What have you guys been talking about? I missed everything._ Sephiroth quickly gave me an overview and we continued talking, but I participated a lot more in the conversation. I really like them both. They were nice and fun to talk to. Zack was very charismatic and gave a lot of detail in his stories. Though I know both Angeal and Sephiroth would differ on how the story went.

I leaned against him listening to them talk about their missions which gave me the opportunity to know more about what Sephiroth was doing. I worried about him a lot and he refused to tell me what went on while he was gone. He could not stop them from telling me everything. I was grateful.

Angeal looked down at his watch. "We've been here a long time. I think we should go now."

"What time is it?" I asked. I never really know the time anyway.

"Ten. We've been here for about four hours." Angeal said. They left, but Sephiroth stayed. I was glad. I had been looking forward to some alone time with him. I could not wait for them to leave. As soon as the door shut and I knew they were not going to come back I hugged him tightly not wanting to let go.

"I see that you missed me." He said. I could tell he was smiling and hugging me back tightly enough to say the same thing. He had missed me too. He let go and I realize that he had pulled me into his lap. I raised an eyebrow at this and laughed slightly. He was looking me over rubbing my neck with one hand and holding me up with the other.

It felt nice and I ended up laying on him letting him feel me. I put my arms around his neck and smiled at him. He had that look in his eyes. That desire to do something that still frightened me a lot. I definitely was not ready for that yet. He kissed me and it felt so good I was not even paying attention to what else he was doing.

I was wearing the usual lab clothes that only tied in the back and he was untying them. I always felt cold because of them, but it suddenly felt really cold. He was still wearing his gloves so I felt leather touching my skin. It surprised me a little so I pulled away.

"What are you doing?" I said laughing and moving his hands. One hand had been moving slowly down my back and the other was on my butt. He sighed a little and seemed to choose silence as his answer. "Sephiroth, I know what you want, but I'm not ready for that." I said a little quieter. He looked at me and nodded.

"I'm sorry, but…sometimes I just can't help it. I wasn't thinking about how you might feel about that." He said that sadly, but I was not really mad at him. I shook my head smiling.

"I'm glad you feel that way. Really. I'll let you know when I'm ready for that ok." I said retying my gown. He nodded and waited for me to finish before touching me again. This time I decided to reward him a little. I was always so shy with him I think he actually wishes I were more of a bad girl. I lay down and motioned for him to do the same. He looked a little confused at first.

I looked at him thinking about what I should let him do. I watched his eyes as he read my mind. They stopped focusing on my chest. His expression did not change and he did not move almost waiting for my permission. He glanced up at me long enough to see me nod and then smiled. He fondled my breast sending waves of pleasure through me. I could not help, but smile. He really looked happy and that was all I wanted. I want him to be happy.

He stopped long enough to take off his gloves and jacket. This way I could feel his skin. He kissed me again and laid down as close to me as he could. I could hear his thoughts clearly. He really did feel happy and in his mind he could not remember the last time he felt like this. He was also trying to identify another feeling. Something he felt for me.

He stopped those thoughts and focused on what he was doing. His hand was working its way down my back. We were very close now and I could feel all of him. I felt something hard touch my leg and smiled trying not to laugh too much. He understood almost immediately and moved away. I was laughing and trying to stop him. _It's ok. I don't mind._ I thought to him.

He turned away and lay very still for a few minutes. I pushed myself against him and buried my face in his hair. We both sighed and he got up. "I have to go." He said putting his things back on. I looked at him and laughed.

"Better take care of that first." I said. He smiled slightly and left very quickly.

_I'll come and see you when I get the chance._ I heard him say. I smiled and laid down smiling up at the ceiling. Despite that trek into G's mind today was a fairly good day.

**Author: **G is now a new enemy. I'll get to what he's doing in later chapters. Maybe around chapter's 25-30. I'm hoping it can wait that long. I am trying to add stuff in between that cause that is exactly where I want that chapter to be.

Ok. Now for something else. Please, please, please, REVIEW!!

I need to know what you are all thinking! I'm not a mind reader. (one person reviewing on every chapter is not enough. Not that I don't appreciate it dantesdarkqueen.) I want to know what you like about this story and even what you hate about it. I can handle whatever you've got to say about this story and I thank everyone that has reviewed.

So I plead, and beg for more reviews. Honestly that is all I can do right now...other than threaten not to update, which I am! So if there is nothing next week you know what happened.


	23. Materia Training

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up! 

Ch. 23 Materia Training

It has occurred to me that every time I have been sick Hojo takes it easy on me. He acts as if he might break me by doing something he considers "harmful". That actually makes me wonder. Why does he feel he needs to do that? It is not like I am a weakling anymore. Thanks to him and the training I get from Usher I am as strong as a second class. I can almost beat Usher every time now.

Usher is also starting to annoy me. He loves showing me pictures of his baby. He tells me everything. He just goes on and on about how cute he is. I have to admit...he is cute. I usually do not think that about most babies. Sometimes they are just ugly and only the parents can say it is cute.

One downside to this is it reminds me of my brother. I hated him at first. Mostly it was because of my step-dad. I hated him therefore I hated his son. Once he was born I still felt that way, but he was cute. That was a surprise to me because his dad was ugly. After I held him for the first time it was different. I could not hate him anymore. Thinking about that made me miss them. I knew he was dead and that a lot of my family was dead. I wanted to go back. Go to their graves and say goodbye. That is something coming here took away.

Usher must have noticed the sad look on my face. He was quiet and waiting patiently for me to finish. "What were you thinking about?" I was not sure if I should answer. I have not discussed that with anyone...not even Sephiroth.

"I was thinking about my family. I miss them." I said with my head down. We were taking a break and were sitting in his office. He had been standing by the door and now decided to close it.

"What happened?" I suppose he is wondering if Shinra killed them or simply took me away from them. I was not really sure how to answer since neither of them is true. I cannot tell him the truth. I know he would never believe it anyway. He is not that kind of person.

"They're dead." I said quietly. It was the only thing I could think of to say. He sat down in front of me and put a hand on my shoulder trying to console me.

"I'm sorry." He said. I waved it off. It does not matter now. There is nothing I can do about it.

"It's ok. That's all in the past now." He could see that I really did not want to talk about it so he left it alone. I really just did not want to have to tell him the truth. That is something I have been trying to avoid with everyone. Sometimes I just feel like I cannot do it anymore. Like I need to tell someone, but I can't.

"Lets get on with your training. It will help keep your mind off that." He said smiling. We left and really did not do much. Today was weight training day. We now have a day for everything. Stealth day, Gun day, Sword day, Martial Art day...etc. Now that I know the basics on everything he has decided that we will spend one day on each. I have to get good at everything, but everyone has their own specialty. I have my gunblades.

So far I have progressed farther with that than anything else. I have yet to be introduced to materia and I have no idea why. Usher has not mentioned it at all and I have not asked. I have not actually seen anyone other than the aids use it anyway.

After my training was over Usher congratulated me on beating my record. I can lift 325lbs now. He also seems to have something else to tell me. He takes me back into his office. Why we need to be secretive I have no idea.

"Now, another part of your training is going to start tomorrow. I am going to teach you how to use materia. Its use is prohibited in the building unless it is used for healing purposes or in an emergency situation. Because of that we cannot do it here. I'll be taking you outside Midgar for this."

When he said that I was actually a little excited for two reasons. One, I get to go outside. Two, I am going to learn how to use materia. I only hope it's easy. "I was wondering when you'd get around to it."

"Actually I had to ask for permission. It was hard to do. There is almost no materia in the building at all. Soldiers have it, but can't use it unless told to. I wanted to get this started earlier, but I had to wait. The president had to sign off on this and so did Hojo since he is your...legal guardian."

The last two words bothered me a lot. _He's my legal guardian?_ It made sense I do live here, but it was just very surprising to hear. The fact that he paused before saying it was interesting. I suppose he does not like the fact that I live in such a horrible environment supervised by Hojo. "I guess. I can't wait to learn."

We went back to the lab where Hojo ran a few tests and then I went back to the chamber. I was fairly excited about tomorrow so I had trouble sleeping. Usually I am extremely tired so I just go to sleep. After a few hours I hear noises upstairs. Someone must be up there working late. _It could just be Hojo._

I turned over trying to ignore it. I need to get some sleep so I am not tired tomorrow. I do not think things will go well if I can hardly pay attention. I might end up burning down the building. Not that I would be sad as long as I lived through it anyway. The noise died down after a few minutes and I went to sleep.

In the morning I woke up early. Sheila came in an hour later with breakfast. She eats with me everyday now. I get to hear her gossip for thirty minutes and then she takes me to the lab for my morning checkup. After that I am escorted down to Usher. He is stuck in his office for a little bit signing papers.

Finally he finishes that and we can go. He takes me up to the top floor where a helicopter is waiting for us. The same Turk as before is piloting. We leave and land in almost the same spot as the picnic Sephiroth set up. Once again I found myself wanting to roll around on the grass. I had already sat down just to feel the grass.

"You don't leave much do you?" He asked. I shook my head. "Go ahead." He said sighing. "Get it out of your system." I smile and lay down in the grass. These clothes were just for training so it did not really matter if I got grass stains on them. I ended up rolling around a little and then sitting up feeling the breeze. It was such a nice day outside and it was something I did not get to experience often here.

"Thanks. I've been wanting to do that for a while." He smiled back and got everything set up. He had brought a suitcase along and now he opened it. It held a lot of materia in it. He was sorting through them trying to decide which ones to start with today.

"Ok I think I know what we'll do. We'll start with something easy. Healing materia. They are the simplest I've got in there. I'll be giving you a test once we're done too." I frowned at that. I hate tests of any kind.

He laid them all out on the ground and talked about each of them. He described each one and then demonstrated them for me. It looks easier than it is. Once it was my turn he gave me step-by-step instructions. That really was not much help since I did not get it. I felt completely stupid as well.

"You have it equipped now concentrate."

I did and nothing happened. I think Usher was starting to get annoyed that I found this so hard, but he told me to keep trying. I kept hearing his little lecture from before playing over and over.

"Draw the spell from the materia and tell it where to go. It will be hard at first since you've probably never done this, but you'll get the hang of it. The materia is connected to you through your armor or weapon. Use that connection to help you tap into it."

I tried to think of it like that, but it was not working. _All this new mental power and it is not helping me at all._ I thought over and over. It seemed ironic that I had telepathy, but I could not do something as simple as casting a spell. I frowned slightly and closed my eyes. _I need to make the connection first._ I reached out with my mind trying to figure out another way to make this work.

I could not feel anything at first. I was wondering if I really would, but I suddenly felt something. It was a strange feeling, especially now that I have telepathy. Ever since that started I have felt this constant feeling all around me. It is subtle and now I am feeling it again, but more concentrated.

_That feeling...it must be coming from the planet. It makes sense since materia is sort of a by-product._ I thought. Now that I had found some sort of connection I felt that I understood better. Technically that means I should be able to do it. I try again and this time it works, but not to my satisfaction. I try a few more times until I feel it is right.

Usher acts proud of me for a minute or two and then immediately gets me started on the next one. I think that is mostly so I get in more practice. Even though I know what I am doing now it is still hard. By the end of our session I had it figured out pretty well. We had gone through them all and now it was time for my test. He poisoned me and told me to get rid of it.

It took two tries for me to make it work. I sighed relieved that I had managed to do it at all. I was actually glad that I had learned something. I could feel the planet beneath me. It always felt the same, but today I noticed it was a little different. It felt off somehow. I have to wonder if Sephiroth feels it too.

"Not bad at all for the first day. Next time we'll do more advanced magic." He said putting everything up. We got back in the helicopter and returned to Shinra building. I noticed how different everything smells now. All of my senses have been heightened. In the building it is hard to smell the air outside. They must have a air purifier or something like that to keep the smog out. I cringe at the smell and Usher gives me a look. "Something wrong?"

"It's the smell. You don't smell anything do you?" He shook his head. I expected that answer. I am different after all.

Back in the lab another report to Hojo and Usher is gone. To my surprise G is there. _Why is he here?_ I only glance at him. I can feel him starring at me though. It is a very uncomfortable feeling. He is simply sitting in the background watching whatever we do. Hojo seems to be slightly irritated by his presence, but he says nothing. I am curious as to why, but I still refuse to speak to him.

I have decided that rule can also apply to G as well. He is rather annoying and I hate shaking his hand. That feeling he gives me scares me. He scares me in general. Also that is what Sephiroth has recommended I do. He absolutely hates him. I really do not know why, but I definitely do not blame him.

**Author:** I finally got the materia training started. To be honest I had almost forgotten about it.

Now I am going to apologize to those reading this story for not updating last week. Oddly enough it had nothing to do with the reason I gave in the last chapter. I did not have time to write/fix up/or whatever. I couldn't decide what should happen next and then I remembered this. So I will update again later this week to make up for it and then I won't update next week. We get a week off and I have to rearrange the apartment. One of my roommates is leaving.


	24. Wutai

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 24 Wutai

_The war against Wutai and Shinra has yet to calm down. Reports are that a group of soldiers are being sent there in the near future to try and settle the matter quickly._

Everyone watching the news story in Wutai was appalled. Shinra sending someone to Wutai to make diplomatic proposals was not something they wanted in the least. They needed to do something. The people there knew that there was a great possibility that they could send Sephiroth.

His popularity around the world is growing and now everyone knows his name. Most people seem to worship him, but those residing in Wutai have labeled him a monster. He is Shinra's little lap dog to be sent out to silence anyone that speaks out against them.

_Shinra Electric Power Company. Why in the world did we allow them to become so powerful?_ Godo thought to himself. He looked over at his wife holding their daughter. They were both asleep and neither of them understood the enormous pressure he was under. He had to defend Wutai and its beliefs. Everyone was counting on him.

He gently woke his wife and told her to go to bed. She did not need to stay out there with him all night when he knew he would not be going to sleep. Besides Yuffie was only two and needed to sleep in her crib now. She did not need to be forced to see him in such a state even if she would not remember it. He only hoped that the war would end quickly so that she would not have to grow up in a war driven Wutai.

He sat there listening to the reporter. She lived in Midgar, but he did find her information very up to date. That was the only reason he found himself watching this news station. He needed to be informed on their movements. His main priority is keeping the people of Wutai safe no matter what.

_The reports have been confirmed. Sephiroth, who was recently given the title of General, will leave for Wutai._ She said. _A small group will be meeting with the Wutai leader Godo Kisaragi for diplomatic negotiations._

Godo found himself wondering where exactly she received her information. Shinra must be none too pleased with her reports since some of them or so delicate. Because of her some rebels were able to thwart Shinra in their attempts to stop them. He was actually surprised that they had not silenced her yet. _I suppose they have found a use for her or otherwise she would be dead._

Godo knew full well how Shinra operated. They were ruthless killers that would do anything for political gain. After they created Soldier he knew they would be a huge problem. They were playing dirty and he feared that he might have to do the same to insure Wutai's survival. He sighed and rubbed his tired eyes. He was tired, but sleep was a luxury he could not afford at the moment. He had to think of ways to seem hospitable to the general and any others that accompanied him. Since they have yet to inform him of his coming, he knew that he had some time to think about it.

The next day he received a surprise visit from the Turks. They came with a message from the president himself. Their leader wore a sly smile on his face. Godo did not care for any of them, but he knew that they were just doing their jobs. There were only three of them. He had seen them all before. They had done a lot to help turn the war in Shinra's favor. He knew that if anything were to go wrong they could secretly send them out to take care of it. That way the little incident would just fall off the radar and no one would ever know.

He took the letter and read over it carefully. "I'm sure you already know about this, but we have to do this the right way if things are to go without any _loss of life_." The Turk said. Godo took that as a threat and rightly so.

_We are sending our 1__st__ class Soldier, General Sephiroth and company to meet with you in three days. They will discuss our terms and will await your decision. If things do not go smoothly then your life and that of your family is forfeit. I suggest you do Wutai a favor and accept our terms. I only want what is best for the world. The war has drug on for years now and needs to come to an end. I know I speak for us all when I say it should not end with bloodshed._

_President Shinra._

Godo stared at it intently. "There is no reason for violence here. I will show honor to my guests." He told them. They nodded and left just as quickly and he sat down at his desk to think. He wanted to laugh at the things the president wrote in the letter. He was trying to appear to have the best interest of the people in mind, but in truth he does not. He could care less about the people. _How can he say such lies? No one in their right mind would believe him._

His wife came in and once he noticed he quickly hid the letter from the president. He did not want her to worry over such a thing. He looked at her and found Yuffie right on her heals. She walked awkwardly, but managed to keep up. She ran over to him and raised her arms up wanting him to pick her up. He did only for the pure pleasure of doing it. He loved her so much and wanted to make sure that nothing would ever happen to her.

"I love you." He said hugging her. She rubbed her face in his neck and lay there. His wife watched with a smile. She loved to see them together. It was the only time she ever got to see him smile. Ever since the war had started he only seemed to frown. He rarely told her anything. She knew it was so that she would not worry, but she did like to be a part of things. She wanted to help him, but he was very stubborn and would not allow it. "Someone has to take care of the baby," he would always say.

"So how is everything? I heard that we are going to have guests here." She said. He looked down at a drawer. She had seen him hide something in there just before she came in.

"Yes. Sephiroth and company." He said quoting the letter. "They will be here in three days."

"Then I suppose we should get ready for them." She said taking Yuffie from him. She turned around with a smile on her face and left him alone. He really did admire her strength. She did not care that he hid things from her. She knew and they had talked about it. She fully understood that he was only trying to protect his family.

"I'm sorry that I have to distance you so from me." He whispered to her. He knew that she could not hear him, but he felt better just for having said it.

Three days later….

Sephiroth, Angeal, Zack, and G arrived in Wutai with a small group of soldiers. Why all of them were there they had no idea. Only Sephiroth and a small escort was necessary, but that is what the president ordered them to do. G was only there because he had requested to go. He needed to go there for reasons he would not reveal.

None of them knew what to expect once they arrived. They knew that this was very dangerous since the residents here despised them so. They found themselves being escorted to Godo's residence. The guards he had appointed were merely there to keep the citizens at bay. If one of them decided to try and attack them he knew that it would give Shinra cause to attack and annihilate them.

Zack actually liked this. He was the one in charge of the soldiers, but he still had to take orders from Angeal. This was a new experience for him. He had never been in Wutai before and he was given some responsibility. They had taken the time to give them special orders just before leaving.

"If they do anything. If you are attacked then you have the authority to fight back. If that happens kill them all." The president had told them. Most of them hated that idea. There would be no reason for them to kill everyone in Wutai. Only the ones that attacked them would need to die. He had also noticed the glint in his eyes when he said that. He was counting on the fact that they would attack. He wanted them to. It was an easy excuse to exterminate them and end the war. All the while Shinra would become the most powerful company in the world and no one would be able to oppose them.

Godo and his family greeted them in the garden. Sephiroth noticed that his wife and child only stayed long enough to be introduced. Once they were gone Godo immediately got down to business. "We both know that there is no way I can agree to the terms Shinra has." He said. Sephiroth nodded.

"However, we must discuss it. All you have to do is listen." Sephiroth told him. Godo nodded understanding once again that he was only doing his job.

"We will discuss it tomorrow morning. I will show you your rooms." He said. He turned and went inside. They followed and he started out by giving the soldiers their room. It was large and had enough bedding for them all. Zack would be staying with them, but now he was regretting that. He was curious as to what Sephiroth and Godo would be talking about.

The next room was for Angeal and G. It was smaller than the other one, but finely furnished. They were surprised to be treated this way. He was trying very hard to show them hospitality no matter what he actually thought of them.

Sephiroth got a room to himself. "This is your room. The best room in the house aside from mine." He told him. There were several female servants in there tending to the room. Sephiroth felt a little unsure about this. He did not exactly like the fact that they were in there with him. "These women will take care of all your needs."

He understood, but he did not want to command them. "You are very gracious, but I don't need all of this."

"Nonsense. Every man likes to have a woman wait on him. I am sure you will find them pleasurable." Sephiroth raised an eyebrow to this. He knew that Godo was trying to appeal to him by letting him have them. The only problem is that he already had someone for that. Godo was already gone so there was only one thing for him to do. Tell them to leave. They all lined up before him and bowed. Then proceeded to introduce themselves.

They went down the line Ai, Catrine, Noa, Anna, Rena, and Kimi.

"Is there anything we can do for you?" One of them asked. He was pretty sure that it was Ai. They all looked up at him intently waiting for his answer.

"No, there isn't." They did not seem convinced in the least.

"Maybe you would like a bath. We have already prepared one for you." Noa said. She pointed to their left. There was a large bathing area. Steam rose from the water telling him it was very hot. All of them were surrounding him and he found himself being taken to the back and stripped of his clothing. He was afraid to accidentally hurt them if he were to protest this so he made sure to quickly make his way into the water. This way none of them would see anything.

His thoughts were already reverting to Lilia. _What would she do if she heard about this? _He thought. He had not noticed that the women were also removing their clothes and joining him. He looked up to see them stepping into the water holding soaps, and sponges. They intended to do all the washing. He was very thankful that you could not see underneath the water. Although he was unfortunate enough to see their exposed bodies as they entered the water. He could not help, but think that they were pretty. He immediately scolded himself for thinking it.

_Just remember her. _He thought to himself. _This is only a part of their custom._ That was the only way he could condone staying in there and letting them bathe him. They started rubbing the soaps on him each of them doing a different area of his body. While one person washed his hair another was washing his chest. One girl he noticed had disappeared underneath the water. He almost leapt from the water when he felt her touching his penis.

She came up giggling and quietly said something to the other girls that made them giggle as well. Sephiroth was too frazzled to listen to them. He was not planning on letting that happen again. "Tell us…how old are you really?" One said. She seemed to be the most curious of them all. She had been asking personal questions the whole time. This is where they all stopped whatever they were doing briefly to hear his answer. He was not even sure if he should tell them. He was actually wondering the same about them.

"Seventeen as of today." They all gasped. He had almost forgotten that today was his birthday. He found himself wanting to see Lilia or at least just to talk to her. He found that that would be impossible now that he has told them his age.

"You're only seventeen!" She exclaimed. None of them could believe it. All of them had thought that he was older than that. All of them were older than him except Rena. She was only sixteen. They decided that they definitely had to show him a good time. It was his birthday after all. "We should celebrate!" She declared echoing all of the women's thoughts. Sephiroth knew that this would only be annoying.

Ai sent everyone except Rena and Kimi to get some refreshments and food for the birthday boy. While they did that the three girls were going to entertain him. She was actually wondering what kind of man he was. Did he like to play or not? They were going to find out.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" She asked. This would definitely answer her question. It should have been a simple one, but he was having trouble.

"Well…yes and no I suppose." He was not sure if he should call her that since they had never decided. They had simply discovered their feelings for each other. They had not actually discussed what that meant for them.

"Yes and no? You do care for her though?" He nodded. "But you haven't…." He shook his head knowing where she was going with that. "Well then we should fix that. If she won't put out then we will." She said smiling. "You need someone who will please you in every way possible." She said to him.

All of them were currently wearing robes and nothing else. He was sitting on the bed and the three women were sitting around him. Ai had been brushing his hair while Kimi and Rena cleaned up the bath. Now Ai was rubbing his chest and leaning on him to let him feel her body. He did not immediately move away and told her that this was pretty new to him. _That girl of his must not do this kind of thing for him._

He jumped up to get away from her, but she was persistent. She got up too and quickly untied his robe. She had already done so to her own and now she pressed her body against him letting him feel her skin while she felt his. She had been the one who had gone under the water to examine his private parts. She had been curious and now she was glad for it.

_Still I must remember who he is. He is the murderer of my people. I must do my job only._ She reminded herself. Godo had asked them to please him so that hopefully things would go well during their meeting. He was attempting to gain favor with him. Maybe then Sephiroth would be able to sway Shinra to lay off Wutai and stop the fighting. She felt him move away and he retied the robe. If he weren't so afraid of hurting them then he would have knocked her flat on the ground for doing that.

"I would very much appreciate it if you would leave. I want to be alone." He said sternly. The sound of his voice told them to stay away from him. Ai backed away and retied her robe. All three of the girls quickly left the room informing the others to leave the food in there and then leave. They were afraid that he would try and hurt one of them if they did anything else.

Sephiroth sat down and sighed. He was just glad that was over. He laid down and stared at the ceiling. Now he really wanted to talk to Lilia. _Lilia._ He said reaching out. He was not sure if they would be able to talk, but technically it was not really that far away from Midgar. It felt like it though.

_Yes? _He heard faintly. He felt very relieved to hear her. He smiled and sighed again.

_It's so good to hear your voice._ He responded. Technically they were not hearing each other speak, but he knew what she sounded like.

_Same. Today is your birthday right?_ She said. He nodded mentally to her. _Happy birthday, Sephiroth! So tell me…how is your trip to Wutai going?_

He was not entirely sure what to tell her. Telling her that he was fairly close to having sex with someone else did not seem the way to go. _I'll speak to Godo tomorrow. For now I am sitting in a lavish room that he has provided._ He stopped there not wanting to tell her anymore. She somehow knew that there was more to the story than that.

_There's more isn't there?_ She asked. Again he gave her a mental nod.

_No, nothing of importance. I should get some rest. Goodnight, Lilia._ He said ending the conversation and severing their link to one another. He felt a little guilty for not telling her what had just happened, but he was actually afraid to.

The next day Sephiroth and Angeal went to meet with Godo. They went into a small room where privacy was guaranteed. They started off with small talk so Godo could assess how their nights went straight from them. He had heard about the girl's attempts to bed Sephiroth and about their failure. He only hoped that that had not put him in a fowl mood this morning. It was very hard to tell when his face was unreadable. Something Godo felt sure he had mastered.

"I assume that you slept well and that everything was to your liking." Godo said. Angeal answered first saying that things had gone well. He did however leave out the part where he found Zack spying of Sephiroth. Unfortunately he was surprised enough to watch as well. Seeing his friend trying to fend off some whores was interesting. And G had gone off to do whatever.

Sephiroth chose to say that he slept well and appreciated the hospitality Godo showed them. Godo sighed and asked them to start. He had hoped that things would go better than this.

"Here are the terms." Sephiroth said handing him the papers. He watched Godo read through them and noticed how quickly his face changed to pure anger.

"How can he ask these things of us? Our people will not willingly bow down to him." Godo said finally. Sephiroth had expected that kind of answer. He actually agreed with him, but he also knew that he could not go against Shinra. He had to protect her after all. They could easily use her to force his hand.

"He is the president. He can ask whatever he wants and most people accept that. We all know that you will not agree with everything he has proposed." Angeal said.

"That is true. I have read over that very carefully and if I am correct he is willing to buy your allegiance. With the majority of everyone paying Shinra for their electricity Shinra is very rich." Sephiroth said. Godo nodded seeing that he was right. He did not want to accept such a deal though.

"He wants us more or less to become slaves." He said cringing at the idea. "According to this all of our weapons, and materia will be taken away." They both nodded.

"Yes it is the easiest way to render you helpless." Angeal said. "Without those items it would be very difficult for you to fight back."

"I take it that you two don't entirely agree with this document either." He said shaking it. They both looked at one another briefly before answering.

"No. We both know what really happens to people Shinra perceives as a threat. However, we do believe that the war should end. Innocent lives are being lost and they do not deserve that." Angeal replied. Godo considered his words. He knew that the answer was no. If he accepted such a farce his people would be outraged. There was no way he was going to let them down like that.

"Unfortunately I cannot accept this. My answer is no. We will not become their slaves." He said standing. He opened the door and motioned for a guard to enter. "Gather a small group and escort them out of Wutai. Remember that they are not to be harmed."

"We apologize for the inconvenience. It is a shame that today was such a waste." Sephiroth said.

"No. It is a shame that the president would sink so low to gain the peoples favor. This was nothing more than a political stunt." Godo replied before returning to his family. He was happy to sit down with them and forget it all. He did know that the threat the president made could come true. He would have to be diligent to protect them.

**Author:** I've wanted to write this one for a while and now here it is. How do you think Lilia will react once she finds out?

Ok. Remember that I will not be updating next week since it is my break.  
R&R please. It will make me happy!


	25. Revelations

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ok I am going to do something a little different. I try to space out the ones that aren't in Lilia's POV, but this time I won't. These chapters need to be here so I can introduce a few things.

Ch. 25 Revelations

**Part 1: **Secret Camera

Hojo sat at his desk gazing intensely at the computer screen. He had been sitting here for hours and was forcing himself to stay awake. He sat there watching an almost endless amount of video. Thanks to the relentless impatience of the president he had not had the time for this. He did not trust anyone else to do this sort of thing. To them it would be useless, but to him it was like gold.

He had installed a secret camera in the chamber. It was merely there to confirm or dismiss a suspicion of his. He had noticed that Sephiroth and the girl were very close. The way they acted around one another was a dead giveaway. He was sure that something between them had changed.

That was something that he had previously asked Sheila to watch out for and report to him. However, she was proving to be a let down. Apparently they were good at hiding it or she is lying to him. _Maybe she is the one getting too close to them. I may have to fire her._ He thought.

He had a good reason for all of this. The girl as he had learned when she first arrived was perfect for what he planned. It was something that he had been considering for quite some time now. The only problem was that he could not find someone compatible. The other candidates could not hack it. They died shortly after arrival. She, however, had lived and seemed to be getting stronger.

It was just like Sephiroth. He had been the same way. On the first try he had a specimen that was perfect and now it had happened again. They had simply found her in Corel. _And what a find it was._ The only setback is that her body rejected it.

_In vitro is obviously not the answer. It may just have to happen naturally and then I could always extract the child when it's ready. I need to do more tests first._

He jumped back to reality when something on the screen caught his eye. He quickly rewound it just to make sure. He honestly could not believe his eyes. "Oho! What's this?" He watched wide-eyed as Sephiroth pulled her into his lap and then kissed her. Needless to say he was ecstatic. This is better than what he had hoped for. If one way does not work there is always another, but he knew better than to give up on his original plan.

Hojo watched on and saw how quickly his son began to undress her. He had a wide grin stuck on his face, but it lessened when she stopped the action. "She is reluctant to go any further." He groaned. "Why are they like that?" He mumbled to himself. He remembered that even thoughLucrecia had consented to in vitro fertilization she was reluctant to begin.

Hojo shook himself out of those thoughts and focused on the video. He was very tired now, but he was also excited at this find. He wanted to see what else he might find. He drank the remainder of his coffee and skipped ahead to the next part. He had decided that every time Sephiroth visited he would record it. It has proved to be a good idea.

He watched as Sephiroth came in and he noticed that he was not alone. Genesis, Angeal, and that annoying Zack had also come. His excitement dissipated when he saw Genesis. He hated him. "I know you're up to something." He whispered.

G had been spending a large amount of time in the lab. Hojo had noticed that he studied everything there. He was trying to be secretive, but it was not hard to see that he had copied some of his files. However, that was all trivial information. He did not care that he took it since he kept the real files elsewhere. He knew better than to leave something like that just lying around. There were things in there that he did not want anyone else to see.

He watched the girl smile happily at Sephiroth, but it faded the instant she noticed G. She seemed angry to see him there. He noticed that she glared at Sephiroth who merely shook his head in response. He now wished that there was sound, but it would be useless thanks to the way the chamber was made. It reduces sound and he would hear nothing unless they shouted.

At least this way he could focus on their body language. He knew that there was more to that glare than meets the eye. The way she looked at him and the way he only shook his head. Hojo knew that he had not actually said a word. Especially with Genesis so close by. He knew the look was about him.

They all sat and talked and he immediately noticed that Genesis was starring at the door lock. "Hm…what's he thinking?" He noticed that she had noticed it as well. She then focused her attention on Angeal and Zack seemingly listening to their conversation, but her expression was more vacant than that. Her and Genesis were very absent from the conversation. Sephiroth was being her mediator as it were. When they spoke to her he would cut in sometimes diverting them from her or their question. "Now what exactly are you doing?" he said leaning in a little closer.

After a few minutes G abruptly got up and Hojo noticed the way she cringed and hid her face. While they were all focused on him she wiped her face and pretended that nothing was wrong. He stopped the tape when G left to get a better look at the situation. G looked very angry and he could see a flare of hatred in his eyes. Behind him he noticed that Sephiroth was giving him the same look, but he was not looking directly at him. He was attending more to the girl.

She almost appeared to be in pain. As if in those few minutes he had somehow injured her. This reminded him of something he had noticed earlier. Using his new scanner he got a 3-D image of her brain and of whatever else he needed to see. She always managed to make the process so trying, but this particular time she had seemed a bit absent. Her mind was elsewhere.

In a sense that was correct. According to the scan her brain activity was centered in one place. In a normal person this area is less used. Mostly thought processes and such, but here it was elevated. She was not just thinking in the sense that most people would. Thinking of that gave him an idea.

_Telepathy? Could that be it?_ He looked at the scene several times and found that to be the only answer. The three of them having telepathy made sense. It explained quite a lot. She always knew when Sephiroth was coming though he knew that no one told her. Sometimes Sephiroth made surprise visits, but she always knew.

This information was huge. He could hardly believe that he had discovered that from this video. He had not even thought of it when he took the scans. He honestly had not known what to think of it. It was simply a mystery at the time. He had had a specialist start looking at the scans to help him understand them better. Hojo himself did not specialize in anything. Now everything was clear to him. He decided to enter this into his notes and quit for the night. It was almost four in the morning and he had to be at the lab in a few hours. He was going to at least get some rest and then he could always make the aids do everything for him. That is their main function after all.

**Part 2: **The Newest Member

Scythe stood where he always stood. They had recently gained another member. One that was more curious about the universe than anything else. That was his reason for joining. He wanted to prove his theories. He told them that he really did not even care about trying to make anyone else believe him. The only problem he had was that he was dead. His eyesight had been making things difficult for him and eventually that was his downfall.

One wrong concoction and you pay for it with your life. Scythe was curious and decided to save him. His soul had merely been wandering. He returned him to his body, but with one difference. No more pesky eyes to see out of. How he really sees things is the secret though. Scythe chooses not to tell letting everyone make their own guesses. It matters little so long as it works.

Simon was very happy to be alive again. He found himself in such a strange place. It felt oddly familiar to him. He could not explain the feeling. He quickly learned that he did not see normally at all and that he was a hideous site to behold. His body was scarred and his eyes had been plucked out. He then chose to wear goggles to cover them. He did like the strange looks from his comrades. Especially Siren. She was very squeamish. He did however get tired of the unwanted and unnecessary attention it brought him.

Simon found himself standing next to Scythe admiring the glowing orb. He was fairly new to the group so he really did not know what this thing was, but he knew it held a great amount of importance. He could feel it and he knew it was familiar just like this place. They all called it the Abyss saying that that is the name it gave them or rather…it gave Scythe.

He looked over at his fearless leader wondering what he was doing. He knew that he could not simply stand there thinking. He had to be doing something else entirely. _Maybe he is…talking to it._ He thought. He looked at it and found it answering for him.

_I am the Abyss and I have my own voice._

That was all it said to him. He was so shocked that he had nearly jumped a few feet. "Hm. I see. So it's alive."

"No. It is life." Scythe said suddenly. This startled him more than hearing the Abyss speak to him. He was honestly afraid of those cold and unforgiving eyes. Although he knew that he had once looked at the world in the same way. "They Abyss is life. It merely does what it is suppose to. Keep the cycle going…unless we change that." He said smiling.

Simon understood. He had been informed as to what their plans were. He was not particularly fond of helping them, but he was not opposed to it either. He did enjoy watching the occasional killing though. He did not make a pastime of it like Glaed. The only true benefit to him was that he could now explore the universe. He could learn all that he wanted. There really were so many things to discover out there and he was one of the few lucky people to be able to explore them.

"I want you and Link to go get another one. Find him." Simon decided to go ahead and take this opportunity to speak with him. What he wanted to know was fairly simple.

"I have a question." Scythe looked at him. He liked to be able to look in their eyes and instill a certain amount of fear in them. However, this will not work seeing as he has no eyes.

"What is it?"

"I was told about a girl from my world. She has gone to another world and you are letting her stay there. Why? She's fair game isn't she?" He asked. It was a fair question and he was the only one willing to utter it.

"No one else feels the need to question me, but you are a man of science…so I suppose I should answer." He paused for a moment. "Because of a technicality. If we do not wait…all will be for naught. We will literally have to start all over. The Abyss knows everything and that is what it has told me. That is why we wait." He said.

That was not quite the answer that Simon had wanted, but he knew that it was the best he would get from Scythe. He decided to do as he was asked and go find Link so they could go and do their mission.

He had been pondering that question for a long time. Why let her stay there? With that mostly answered another question he had got its answer. Why still go out and retrieve the other soul fragments if she is the only one they needed? _To pass the time. If what they say is true then they really do have to wait. Even by traveling in death you are not guaranteed to come out in the right time or place._

Scythe is very careful about where and when he sends them out. He consults the Abyss to make sure that their time is not wasted. Although right now they are wasting time. He needs to keep them occupied or there is no telling what they might do. Scythe knew that all of them including Glaed was afraid of him. He knew that eventually he would have to dispose of them…once they were useless to him.

He also knew that waiting gave way for those of opposition. Since only the dead knew of them they were the only opposition he had. They could, however, enlist other help. If someone like that man, Sephiroth, were to move against them they would have serious problems. He is one of the factors that makes them wait.

_They chose well when they sent her to that world. The way he feels for her will guarantee that he protects her._ He sighed thinking of the problems and delays that could promise. _What a bother._

**Author:** Ok so I introduced Simon. I have posted a picture of him and as always changed the link to his picture. In case anyone hasn't looked at the other ones then just push next. I am trying not to post anything other than fanfic pics so you guys don't have look for them. Though I am not opposed to you looking at the rest of my artworks and if you haven't I do have a pic of G posted. As the description of that one says: It was hard to do!

Thanks to Crystal Mooge for reviewing. Although I figured everyone would get tired of Lilia always being in the story. Hence the breaks in between, but I found that was the only way to actually write those chapters in a way that makes sense. She is not there to witness them therefore she cannot really be a part of them unless they are happening directly to her. Plus there are things that I need to introduce like now or else it could screw up the rest of the story.

Also thanks to everyone else that has reviewed and I do ask for more. Please R&R twould make me very happy and keeping me happy means the story will get better. Well...hopefully.


	26. Family

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 26 Family

Lilia's father stood before his ex-wife's grave and sighed. The name next to her he knew was her second husband. It had since been scratched out so now it was unreadable. For some reason no one in her family spoke of him. It was almost a sin to speak his name in their presence.

"Terra I wish that I could have done more for you…for all of you." He looked at the mans missing name. "I wish you would have shared more with me."

He moved on to his stepsons. They were from her first marriage. They had been seven and nine when he adopted them. He had loved them very much and after a time they simply called him their father. Beside them was a marker for Lilia were they ever to find her body. He could not stop the tears from coming. He had loved her so much. She had been two years old and he knew that not more than a few months had passed since her real fathers death.

That was something they had never told her. It was something the entire family had agreed upon. He honestly thought that they should wait until she was the right age and then tell her about him. Her mother was buried beside him after all. She could not live her life wondering who he was. They had quickly forced him to promise he would never tell her. Now he knew that he would never get the chance. The only problem is that he himself knows very little about him.

It had been a year and they had found nothing, but he did not expect them to. They had essentially given up after a few months. They simply decided that they were never going to find her. There was just not enough evidence for them to perform a search. It was as if they had disappeared off the face of the earth. That is what the police and CSI's had told them.

He could not and would not believe that for a second. They were out there somewhere and _he_ was getting of scot-free. He clenched his fists at the thought. He calmed himself and found that he was back there standing in front of that name. He wanted to know who he was and what had happened to him. _Why did he die?_ He honestly was not sure whom to ask. _Will anyone in her family actually tell me?_

He got in his car and started home, but stopped in front of Terra's brothers' driveway. _Maybe he can tell me something. It certainly wouldn't hurt to ask. _He drove up to the house in the woods. Rows of trees made sure that you could hardly see the road from here. He could not help thinking that it was something Lilia would have liked. She always kept to herself.

He could see that the newly finished house was as grand as they said it would be. He remembered looking at the plans thinking they might never get it done. The house actually appeared small, but once you are inside you realize just how big it is. He went to the door and rang the doorbell almost hoping that no one was home. He felt nervous about this. It was really none of his business, but he could not help being curious. After all, they were all dead.

He had expected to see Henry open the door, but instead it was his wife. In a way he was relieved. She was not related and he hoped that she would feel different about the mystery man than they did. She smiled at him and immediately noticed that he had something weighing him down.

"Hello, why don't you come in." She said. She could see that he looked tired and from the look of it had gone to their graves again. It was something that he did a lot. She felt bad for him and the rest of the family. Something so tragic should never have happened to such nice people, but you cannot change the past.

"Is Henry around?" She shook her head while going into the kitchen. "Well then, I suppose I can ask you."

"What's that?" She called back. "Do you want anything?"

"No. I want to ask about something…." He paused for a moment as she brought back some tea for them both. He did not want it, but he did not want to be rude and leave it sitting there. "I want to ask about Terra's second husband." He said more quietly.

That made her drop her tea in shock. Her hands shook and she was shaking her head. "No, I couldn't. If Henry found out he would be angry." She said standing up. He was not entirely surprised by her reaction. They all did that when he first asked the question.

He tried to stop her, but she was already in the kitchen trying to get away from him. "Please, Jan. He was her father and almost no one knows anything about him. What kind of person was he?" He was hoping maybe asking that would get something out of her. He would work his way to what happened the day he died. He honestly did not even know if she knew what had happened.

"Different. That's what he was." She said shaking hoping that that small tidbit of information would be enough. Of course, as things always are it was not enough for him.

"That's not good enough. The only connection anyone had to him is gone and even she did not know who he was." He said angrily. That seemed to soften her attitude towards the subject and she did start to talk.

"Well…as I said he was different. Claimed he had amnesia. He could not remember his past and he made no effort to do so. I suppose that he figured it didn't matter." She paused when she heard a noise. If that were her husband she knew she would be in trouble. Luckily it was not and she relaxed. She sighed unsure of what exactly to say. There were things about those days that she and everyone else would love to forget.

"Strange things happened around him. It was almost like he could never get hurt and anyone around him were suddenly healed." When she said this Dennis gave her a disbelieving look. She understood completely. They had all done the same thing. Turned a blind eye to it all and pretended that it was ok. "I know how that sounds, but it's true. Things happened around him. We ignored it, but we did see." She paused wondering where exactly to start. It should have been easy but it was not. _I should start at the beginning. When we first met him._ She thought. So there she began her tale hoping that her husband would find something to keep him gone long enough.

* * *

Terra came home from her small hiatus and immediately went to her parents. Since they lived next door they were not all that far away. Both her sons were there and she could not wait to see them. She smiled the whole way up the steps.

Inside they heard her footfalls on the porch and since they were expecting her they got very excited. They knew it was her. For a moment most of them swore that they had heard other footsteps. These were harder telling them that it had to be an adult and that it was probably a man. It was certainly not her when she walked so quietly. She knocked on the door and both of the boys jumped up yelling, "Mommy!" with excitement.

They flung open the door and leaped at her. She was standing there with her arms wide open smiling back at them. She had gone for a reason. Her first marriage had gone down the drain and he was in jail. She was glad to see her boys. "It's so good to see you both."

"Did you have fun while you were gone?" They asked. They were so excited to see her. They wanted to hear everything and at the time she was very unwilling to say much. She just took their hugs and kisses and went inside. As she did she raised her hand motioning for someone to follow her. Those footsteps returned and now everyone was sure that she had not come back alone.

She looked tired, but happy. Her red hair was now a dull brown telling them that she had not died it yet. That was something they did not understand. Why did she need to do that in the first place?

She sat down and behind her came in a strange looking man. For some reason he did not seem normal. His eyes seemed to glow a bit and he looked bulkier than he should. They just assumed that he worked out and from the look of it had been in the military. He gave them a small smile and sat next to her. He was looking at her with worry on his face. She smiled at him briefly and then looked at her parents.

They both sat there waiting for an explanation. Her children used a more direct approach. They were asking him question after question about random things. How strong are you? Why are you here? All of the things they were asking themselves. They were asking them so fast he could hardly answer the first before they were on their third question. Terra hushed them and asked everyone to listen.

"I know you all must be wondering why he is here." She paused looking down at the ground. No one said anything. Everyone looked at her glancing every once in a while at him. "I met him while on vacation. I know you must have figured that out." She said pausing again. This seemed so hard for her to say. They could all tell that she was struggling with it. He gently put his arm around her and urged her on. The way he did that told them instantly that he was not just a friend. "He actually saved my life. There was a fire and he saved me." She said.

They all looked at him a little wide eyed. He had saved her life so they were grateful to him, but they knew there was more and they were not particularly sure they wanted to hear it. "After what had already happened I was almost out of my mind, but he helped me through it." She stopped completely and both of her parents were eager to hear more. That still did not give the reason he had come back here with her. In fact, they were almost angry to see him there. It had only been a short time since her divorce and here she was already bringing someone back home.

"I came because I had noticed how hard it was for her. She was having trouble doing anything." He said finally speaking up. They still had yet to be introduced and in their minds they did not care to. They wanted him to leave no matter how nice he seemed. "I know this must look terrible, but I do want to help her." He said with conviction. They could not doubt the tone of his voice. They still were not really sure about him.

"Could you tell us your name?" Her mother asked. He nodded and then smiled as if he had forgotten that part. She immediately jumped to the conclusion that maybe he had no manners at all, but she did notice the way he spoke. There was a great amount of politeness there.

"My name is…."

* * *

"They went to see her parents first. They had been taking care of her sons while she was away." Jan said. Dennis listened intently wanting to hear everything. Finally, the name (or rather the missing name) would have some meaning. He would no longer be a complete mystery. Even if she did not tell the whole story he would be happy. 

"We met him at church. He went everywhere with her…err rather…he took her everywhere. For some reason she just had trouble doing things. Her divorce had been terrifying. He had threatened all their lives and she was afraid he might actually do it." She stopped waving that unpleasant though away. "That's all in the past." She said skipping it. He did not care to hear that tale again. They had willingly told him everything about that.

He had kidnapped them and was threatening to kill them. No one really knew why. He was crazy. That was the verdict. They left it at that and sent him away to a special little jail for the insane. That was where he belonged and they all hoped it's where he stayed.

"He seemed nice." She said. She remembered his eyes. They way they glowed. She relayed his appearance saying that he looked strong. His eyes made him appear strange, but they held such sadness. She had noticed that. He was sad about something. Once they got to know him better he told them that one reason he had come is that he knew no one would miss him. He had learned through records that he had no family. He claimed that he did not remember them anyway. "He did mention once that he had nightmares. He said they were terrible and that he thought they were from his past. He honestly did not want to remember them."

Dennis found himself agreeing. If his dreams were so terrible and they were events he had witnessed then why remember them? He suddenly realized something. She had not mentioned his name. "Jan. You never said what his name was." She looked at him and frowned.

"I can't actually remember it." She said quietly looking ashamed. He sighed. He should have expected that. It had been a long time since anyone said his name aloud. They had even taken the time to erase his name from the gravestone. Why should they remember? He frowned in frustration. He knew there might still be a way to find out who he is, but geting those records could be hard.

"Go on then." He said. He was ready to hear more. Before she could say anything they heard the door open. She went into a panic and told him to leave quickly. He thought that might be a bad idea. Henry would have seen his truck in the driveway.

"Hey!" He said popping his head in through the doorway. He glanced at them both and then disappeared for a minute. He came back with a cup of tea. Dennis looked down at his and realized that it was cold now. He had only taken a sip of it. "So what brings you here?"

"Nothing much…just needed to talk to someone." He said. He went into the kitchen to get rid of his tea. After all she had told him it was the least he could do. She followed him and whispered that he should go before either of them accidentally said something they should not. He nodded and found Henry was there with them. "I really should be going. I have to get up early for work." He lied.

Henry bought it of course. They all knew that his job was demanding and that sometimes he went in early. The one o'clock in the morning early. He had no reason to question it. Dennis left and breathed a sigh of relief. That had been a close one. He was not sure what would have happened if he had realized what they had been talking about. He had seen their reaction just mentioning him at all.

He was still unsure as to why they acted as if he were the devil. He hated it and he was determined to get to the bottom of it. _I have to find out what happened to him. How did he die?_ He was not sure why he needed to do this. He knew that it was important, but a part of him felt bad. He should be out there looking for Lilia. He knew that somehow she was alive. It was a strange feeling, but he knew. Somehow he also knew that if he learned the truth about him it would help him find Lilia.

**Author:** Ok so now you know another important piece of information. The mystery of her real father. If you want you can guess at who he is. I won't tell you if you are close or not, but you already know this person and so does Lilia. I didn't straight out tell you who he is because I want to do this in a certain way. A specific person is going to tell it.


	27. To tell the truth

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 27 To tell the Truth

I was actually excited that Sephiroth was coming back. He had been in Wutai long enough. I was ready to see him. He told me a lot about what had happened, but for some reason I got the impression that he was leaving something out. I ignored it thinking that it must be nothing.

Everything here was going as usual. My materia training was going well. Now that I understand it better it is much easier to control. Since I am being such a perfectionist about it I have gotten really good at the few I have tried out. Usher thinks that I should not do that. He thinks I try too hard. _Maybe I do try too hard, but I have to. After all…I'm not from this world._ That is what crossed my mind every time he said that to me. It really is frustrating how hard it can be since I know it should not.

We are now once again outside of Midgar and for some reason I always feel the same. I cannot wait to get there. I get to breathe in the fresh air instead of whatever they have in the building. I can definitely tell the difference. Usher seems unfazed by it, but I do expect that. He is not exactly trapped in a cage like me. This is the only time I get to go outside the building. Getting to leave the city is like giving me candy!

No matter how many times I touch the grass it is like I can hardly remember it each time. I have to take those few moments when Usher is setting things up to feel it. I know that he sees me doing this and I really do not care. He never says a word. He just looks at me with sad eyes. I have never actually taken the time to look through anyone's mind, but now I think I will try. I want to know why he looks at me that way.

_Poor thing. I hate to see her like this. Wish I could take her home with me so she can have a proper place to live…and a proper life. _He was saying. That made me feel slightly uncomfortable. I tried not to look sad.

"Alright! Lets get started." He said. Today we were actually going to fight each other with magic and magic only. We have already gone through pretty much all he is allowed to teach me. Now we are putting that to the test. The great thing is you do not have to say anything. Your mind does all the work.

He started out by hitting me with thunder. That was not at all fun. Since this is my first experience actually feeling the effects of the magic I was prepared to hate it. I now know that I hate it a lot. I would rather fight hand-to-hand than use magic after knowing what it feels like. I know I will end up changing my mind about that. Magic is very useful. It felt, of course, like lightning. I suppose that it probably is not as bad as actually getting hit by lightning though.

I started out by throwing fire at him. I like how in the game they do not move so almost everything hits them. Well…magic is hard to avoid, but it can be done. He managed to dodge the fire, but that was the point. He had been getting ready for another spell. I could tell by the face he was making. I tried not to do that. I do not want to give myself away. He was not really expecting it, but he still managed to dodge. I guess he would not be 1st class if he could not.

Then immediately after that I tried thunder too. That one is harder to avoid, but it is also more unpredictable. It makes a different pattern and takes a different path every time you use it. He decided to use water getting me completely soaked. It was fairly effective and sent a slight shock through me from my thunder spell. He had decided to take cover while also sending a barrage of earth magic my way. I looked up just in time to jump out of the way. Once I landed I found myself having to dodge again.

I jumped up onto the side of the mountain. I was actually a little surprised by how high I was. I have been doing that a lot lately. I surprise myself. I simply cannot believe some of the things I find myself doing. It just makes me think of how much I have changed over the years. It also reminds me of how foreign this is to me. At the same time I hear the sound of a helicopter. I turn around to have a look wondering if that might be Sephiroth coming back from Junon.

To my surprise it was. I only knew that because I could feel him. I could also feel the rest of them. G was the most prominent. I shuddered slightly. I had not even noticed that Usher was getting closer. I did notice the magic he used on me. Another thunder spell. I yelped in surprise more than pain. I have also noticed that things feel different. Pain is not the same as it use to be.

"Pay attention!" He shouted. I was still looking up and I knew that at least Sephiroth and G had seen me.

_Have fun training._ I heard Sephiroth say. I smiled a bit and then threw another spell at Usher. He had also taken the time to have a look at the passing helicopter and that gave me my chance. It knocked him flat on his ass. I thought this was hilarious. The face he made did not help much either.

Once we were done…or out of mp we returned to the building. He immediately took me to the lab where Hojo was waiting. On the way we had to interrupt the president's meeting with Sephiroth and them. He gave us a slightly irritated look, but said nothing. A Turk had gone in and told him we were back. That was our polite way of saying we need through.

The way they were standing struck me as odd. Sephiroth and Angeal stood in front and Zack and G stood behind them in a diagonal. Zack was smiling away like always and G seemed very annoyed. Zack was standing behind Sephiroth and G behind Angeal. They were even standing a fair distance apart so that it separated the two groups. For some reason it reminded me of that game. I knew so little about it, but this made me think of the things I had seen. I am a little surprised that I even remember it now. I know that G will be the enemy and that Zack will side with Sephiroth. They are friends after all so I would expect that. I find myself wondering where Angeal fits in. He seems nice enough.

We went through quickly since the president was frowning at us. No one said a word. Usher did not take the time to look at anyone. I took the time to glance over my shoulder at Sephiroth. He was watching us along with everyone else. I could see a small smile there, but it did not last long. I also noticed G starring at me. I could not read his face though so it was hard to tell exactly what he was thinking.

We went to the lab and Usher gave his usual report. Hojo just waved him off and looked over the results himself. He apparently was not in the mood to talk. Sephiroth came in a bit later. It was pretty late in the day so we ended up going to the cafeteria and eating with Angeal and Zack. I was glad that G was not there.

We spent the whole time talking about nonsense. I was leaning against Sephiroth most of the time. I did notice the looks from around the room. I could hear them whispering about us. Probably trying to figure us out. Zack was doing the same thing. He made several comments about us. Angeal spent the majority of the time hushing him. Kept telling him that he was being very rude. Sephiroth and I ignored them. Let them talk. For the most part all of it is just conjecture.

"Well…time to go." Angeal said. He made sure that Zack got up too. Sephiroth and I did the same. We were all done with our food so we were going to go back upstairs to talk. For whatever reason Angeal and Zacks thoughts were very loud. Whatever they were thinking about seemed to be making them nervous about something. I had noticed this during the meal, but now it seems even more prominent since we are going off on our own.

_I wonder if he will tell her about that night?_ He was thinking. _I hope she won't get too mad._

That actually got me curious. I listened in on Angeal and he was actually saying the opposite. _I hope he doesn't decide to tell her that._ Of course I have no idea if they were actually talking about the same thing. I did not delve that far. We left and went back to the chamber. I needed to change clothes. They were a little singed from training. I made him turn around so I could put on the usual gown. I only like wearing it because I get hot otherwise. That in itself is strange since it is always cold in here.

We sat close to each other and he had his arm around me. I still had the feeling that there was something he was not telling me. Now that he was here it was a more prominent feeling. Thinking about what I had heard Angeal and Zack only made it stronger.

"Sephiroth. Is there something you haven't told me?" I said. It was almost a whisper. I was afraid of the answer. What if it was something bad?

"Well…there is one thing." He began. He seemed to hesitate. "I wasn't going to bother you with it, but you did ask." He never looked at me. He seemed more ashamed of whatever he had to say than anything.

"On my birthday…while I was in Wutai." He sighed and his voice got low. "Godo was trying to vie for my favor. I suppose he thought that if I had good things to say to the president it might help him. I don't much appreciate what he tried to do though." He said lowering his eyes. I could tell that he was seeing it in his head. I found myself watching too.

I watched as these women stripped him. I actually felt his surprise and his anger added with my own. They were in the water bathing him. It was not so terrible. I knew that it was just a job to them. One of them disappeared under the water and he jumped. This is where he drew the line and got out. I could tell that he had been very angry. For some reason they did not take the hint and leave. Instead they tried even harder after learning that that day was his birthday. They were going to do something _special_ for him and that made me really angry. I knew exactly what they were going to do.

The thought made me frown. There was the possibility that something did happen, but I should try not to jump to conclusions. Although my mind did go there first thinking that that was his secret. Just thinking about that hurt and I found myself fighting back tears. I have no idea if I could actually take something like that. I was glad to see that he did eventually make them leave. I gave a sigh of relief. He noticed that and gave me a strange look. _Did he really not know that I was watching too?_ He seemed to figure it out very quickly and looked afraid for a moment. He was not sure what I would say. Would it be good or bad for him?

I simply smiled at him. "I'm not mad." I told him. He sighed relieved that I was not angry with him. "However, you could have said something then. That would have been nice." I said trying to sound more irritated.

"Forgive me. I know I should have…I just couldn't." He said slowly shaking his head. I gave him a hug and told him it was ok. I would have only been angry if something had happened and if he never told me. I do not like having a lot of secrets. (That sounds stupid when I have a huge secret locked away.)

"I couldn't stay mad at you anyway." I said. He looked me in the eyes and smiled.

"I'm glad." He said.

He kissed me briefly and then left. He seemed to feel a lot better now that I knew. I think things like that just weigh you down until you let them out. I lie down and close my eyes. For some reason I fell asleep in a matter of minutes. I could hear someone crying the whole time.

I kept thinking that it was my mother. She was dead and though I knew that the dead could reach out to you I found it impossible. She had died on another world. Would she really be able to reach me here?

"I'm sorry." This person said. I had no idea why they were saying that.

_What's there to be sorry about?_ I thought. I did not get an answer. All I could see was the white expanse that I had gotten so use to. I was alone save the crying. I could hear it all around me so I could not tell where it was coming from. I did notice that it was coming closer.

"Why are you crying?" I asked. I hoped that if I voiced it this person would answer. I had guessed right and got my answer.

"It was my fault." I could tell now that I had also been right about the voice.

"Mom?" I could not see her, but I felt her pain. She was miserable, but why?

"I should have seen it. Now it's happened again." She said once again crying in pain.

"What's happened?" I found myself frantically looking around knowing that I might not see her.

"Someone died…because of me." She whispered. She paused for a moment and drew in a breath. "Because of you." She finished. Then without warning I woke up.

**Author:** Ok so now you know. I couldn't make her mad at him. He didn't actually do anything wrong to begin with. I'll get to explaining that last part eventually. Probably somewhere around where I explain her father.


	28. Stolen Information

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 28 Stolen information

I woke up startled by the dream. I had a lot to think about. It was still early in the morning and they had not even turned on the lights yet. _Why had she said that? _I thought. I did not understand what she had said, but one thing did come to mind. The day I arrived here in this world.

I had gotten that call from the detective. _Several of you family members have been murdered._ I wondered if that was what she had meant. I knew from my dreams shortly after that and this recent one that she was gone. I never really got to learn who else died. I have made my own assumptions though. I suppose that if she died then everyone else living with her is gone as well.

I do not really understand why she would blame herself for that. How could anyone know that something like that was going to happen unless there were signs? To be honest I would not know. I never really visited them since they were a good four or five hours away and I had no car. I was surprised to even be getting a phone call. They never call me and neither does anyone else I know unless a text could not do the job. I sat there thinking for quite a while. I could not come up with a reason for it.

I saw no point in trying to go to sleep since it was close to breakfast time. Sheila would be coming in soon and wake me up. Some people would be happy for a few more minutes of sleep, but here it is irrelevant. Sleep is something I do a lot here. Hojo is always knocking me out for something. Mostly it is now because I can hurt him. I still hate certain things, but since they hurt less my reactions are less…violent. Although, Hojo might not agree with that. It is hard for me to gauge how hard I hit something when I never pay attention to that in the first place. There is also the fact that I enjoy seeing him in pain. He deserves it!

Sephiroth is still in Midgar and wants to see my materia training. He just wants to see how good I am at it. I have only mastered doing basic spells (the level one spells and a few more advanced ones). I think he is comparing us. He wants to know how I stand up to him in terms of ability and statistics. I hope there is a reason behind this. He has not said anything about his newfound interest in that stuff.

He came in while I was getting a checkup in the lab. I have noticed that since Sephiroth is here Genesis is very absent. I am grateful for that. He gives me the creeps with his odd starring. I think that even Hojo and the aids are relieved to see him gone as well, but we all know that he is not just going to stop doing whatever he is doing on the spot like that…unless there is a good reason.

"Alright. You're done." Hojo said. That was my signal to go see Sephy! We waited until we were out of the room to show any affection for the other. He took my arm and moved me over into a corner claiming it was the only place he knew we would not be seen. He ran a hand through my hair and smiled before kissing me. I felt slightly uncomfortable doing this here. _If someone were to see us..._

"Don't worry." He whispered. "I'll know if someone is coming." He said picking me up.

I was actually surprised and gasped, but caught myself before it got too loud. I really did not want anyone to see this. There were just too many people here that I hoped never found out about us. I put my arms around him and kissed him smiling slightly. We sat there for a moment holding each other. It was more him holding me than anything else.

"So where to?" I said wanting to move on just in case. He put me down and took my hand.

"I think we should eat first." He said. "It appears that neither of us have had anything other than breakfast." I nodded agreeing with him. I was a little hungry.

We found the cafeteria very crowded. There was almost nowhere to sit, but almost anyone in the room was willing to give up their seat for us. Sephiroth being a famous general and all who would say no? Only a few people gave him glares. They were generals themselves I knew and they were jealous of his quick rise in the ranks. He ignored them of course. Why show them that you even care. This only made them angry since they were hoping for a reaction.

We took some third class soldiers table. They practically jumped out of their seats to offer it to us. I could tell that they were definitely fans of his. They more than likely joined because of him like so many others. I smiled and said nothing to them. I really did not care what they thought of me being with him, but they were making it apparent that they thought we were more than friends. I think most of the soldiers that frequent here know that I come here with him every time he is here.

I notice that they go off to another table and start gossiping to their friends. I sigh and shake my head. _Well, so begin the rumors about us. Knowing how that works I'm sure everyone will have heard that by tomorrow._

"Ignore them." Sephiroth told me. He went ahead and got the food. He was being quite the gentleman today with a very visible jealous streak. There were some that did not seem to get the hint. A table close to us sat some other first class soldiers who seemed quite full of themselves. Since Sephiroth was not there with me they acted braver than I know they were.

"Hey there!" One of them said leaning back smiling. I frowned knowing what was coming next. "So how would you like to go on a date with me?" He said. _He's being very forward. At least he is to the point._ I thought. I rolled my eyes and sighed again. I did not actually get the chance to say anything. Sephiroth arrived and after putting down the food ripped the chair out from under him. He hit the ground hard enough to make a nice echoing noise that quickly quieted the room. Everyone looked over in our direction. Sephiroth sat down frowning and pretended that nothing had happened.

Eventually the man got up after much cursing and rubbing his ass. He only glanced at us once before limping away. _I bet he will never do that again._

_No he won't!_ I heard Sephiroth say.

_You don't think you were too hard on him?_ I said. He stopped eating and glared at me. It was actually frightening to see him looking at me like that. I looked away unable to hold his stare.

_No._ He said.

_Sephiroth? How do you feel about me? _Once again this prompted him to stop eating.

_Why do you ask that?_ He said.

_I just want to know. We don't really talk about it._ I answered back. I finally started eating now. I looked at the plate wondering what most of it was. Every time I eat here I get something that just seems so utterly different even if it is the same thing. I was mostly trying to avoid what I wanted to say to him. I had been thinking about telling him everything.

He sighed and seemed to think about his answer. I waited patiently for him to say something. _Should it really take this long to say a few words?_ I thought. He sighed once again and then began to answer.

_It might sound silly, but I don't really know. Emotions are something I show little of to the world. You see more of me than anyone, Lilia. You are special to me. I know that I would die to protect you if I had to._ He said.

_You don't have to go that far. _I said. I felt a sense of dread when he said that. _I don't want him to die. _I thought to myself. I could not help thinking of the game. I really want to change that somehow, but I don't know how.

_But I would._ He said with conviction. _Does that answer your question? _

_Not really. _Our little exchange had not taken very long so we just fell into a routine of eating while we talked privately. That was one good thing about having telepathy.

_I have another question. _He nodded. _How often do you read my mind?_ He seemed a little surprised by my question, but this one he could answer easily.

_Mostly when I am not here. Whenever I miss you. It just makes me feel better. I don't look through your head though._ He stated. I was relieved to hear it since I had been thinking about it a lot.

_Sephiroth? _He looked up at me waiting. _Nevermind. _I could not tell him yet. I was still afraid of his reaction. I felt a little better knowing that he did not look through my head at all. He shook his head and continued eating.

We finished eating and found ourselves wandering around the building not really going anywhere in particular. We found ourselves near the ballroom where Sephiroth was announced to join soldier. We decided to go in just for the hell of it. It was completely empty and void of cameras as far as we knew.

We found ourselves standing on the balcony looking at the city. It still was not a very pretty sight especially since they have now completed all of the reactors. There is even more pollution to cover the city and the fog that surrounds them makes it look even uglier. There is also the smell that I know Sephiroth has noticed. Both of us cringe at it and we end up going back inside.

"I think the smell has gotten worse since they finished the last reactor." He said. I nodded agreeing completely. "It never bothered me this much." He said closing the door.

"It never bothered me until I started materia training." I said. That is really the only time I went outside so it is a little obvious. "I think it is just because our senses are so sensitive." He nodded.

"Why don't we dance?" He said smiling. I gave him a doubtful look.

"I don't know how." I said quietly. He put an arm around me and made me look up at him. He was smiling and laughing slightly.

"That's ok. I know a little." He said. I sighed not really wanting to do this at all. I frowned while he got us ready. "It isn't so bad." He whispered to me. Him being much taller than me was not helping at all. I could see that he was trying to keep a pace I could manage. After a few steps he stopped. "See?" I shook my head. He frowned, but then started again. I could hear him counting in his head and making sure that I heard him.

It was just a normal ballroom dance, but I still hated it even if I was dancing with him. Eventually I got the hang of it and he pulled me closer. I more or less snuggled up to him and we danced like that. I could not help but think of how warm he felt at the moment. I found myself smiling and almost enjoying dancing with him. Finally he stopped. "I think that's enough." He said looking behind him. We had been interrupted. Rufus was standing there watching us. Sephiroth glared at him and he stood there glaring back at us. It was kind of an awkward moment.

"What do you want?" Sephiroth asked. I could clearly hear Rufus' thoughts. He understood now the reason I never showed any interest in him. He seemed kind of sad.

"Oh nothing. I was just passing by and happened to see you." He said innocently. "But Hojo is looking for you. No idea why though." He said shrugging. He turned on his heel and left. We followed shortly after.

Once we were back I sat on my bed and he stayed standing waiting for Hojo to arrive. We did not have to wait long. "Come, boy!" He said angrily. He was in a fowl mood and his mind was racing. He was very frustrated and seemingly flooded with work to do. "I need you to do something for me…." He said before all sound was cut off. I decided to listen in a different way.

"Someone has gone through my files and managed to get some information that could be dangerous." He was saying. "It has to do with your files and hers along with some other things, but that is irrelevant. I want you to find out who did it. G is a likely suspect, but do be discreet." He said sounding disgusted. Apparently these files are very important.

"How exactly did they come about this information?" Sephiroth asked. _Why are you bothering me with this and not the Turks?_ He thought to himself.

"Someone snuck in and hacked the computers. I don't keep the files here, but they used it to hack into my personal computer." _They're very smart. _"They put a virus that activated when I connected my laptop." He finished. I stopped listening then. I was reminded of the strange noises I had heard that one night. _Maybe whoever that was did it? _

_Don't worry yourself over it._ I heard Sephiroth say.

_What if I am right? I don't think it was G, but I bet he was involved._ I replied.

_Maybe…._

_I was actually wondering if someone would notice._ I said jokingly.

_Don't joke about this. It really could be serious._ He said. I did see his point and I was sure that it really could be a bad thing. They now have both our files and know everything about us as if were.

_Be careful, Sephy._ I heard him laugh slightly before severing our connection. He had work to do and it was late. I went to sleep wondering if I would dream of any family members._ Maybe then I will understand what my mother told me._

**Author:** I bet you think this chapter is a bit dull and I'm sorry. The creative train has skipped ahead of itself. I started writing a chapter that should be coming up soon and I sort of forgot about this one.

The next one will be much better and I am going to skip to her birthday. I actually should skip a lot more than that, but I won't yet or I might. I don't know;( Eventually I will get around to drawing some pictures of her and Sephiroth though I am not promising much there. For some reason I cannot draw them at all. It's annoying, but I haven't been drawing a whole lot lately.


	29. Beginnings and Endings

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 29 Beginnings and Endings

**Part 1:**Scheming

G stood before the computer looking at the results. He was actually glad to see it and it certainly did change things. He had done the test twice to make sure he was right. If he was then he could move onto his own plans for this little operation that Hollander ran. It was perfect. A secret and forgotten facility with all of the equipment for his experiments. He had already begun that on the side just to see what the result would be, but there was one loose end. Hollander was now in the way.

Hollander had essentially made him who he was up until he lost his job to Hojo. He had started Project G or rather Project Gillian after his wife. G found it interesting that he would do that to one child, but not his own. He wondered how well Angeal really knew his father. Most of what happened to him was Hojo's doing. But he had wanted more from them and he couldn't get it so he abandoned them and sent them off to die. Hollander had saved them.

Up until now G had needed him. He could not survive without his treatments, but that was over. He suddenly found himself in the position where his body could sustain him without any degeneration. It seemed so perfect. A sign telling him he should get started. He had so much to do.

"Now for Hollander." G said grabbing his sword. He walked happily down the long hallway to his office. He went in with purpose. Hollander was there of course. He was buried in a book researching something, but G did not care. No matter what he had done for him Hollander was no longer useful. He would never agree with what G wanted and he felt sure that he would try to stop him. That is one reason he lost his job. He could not fulfill the needs of Shinra. They wanted things they could use for war, but he could hardly provide that.

"What is it, G?" Hollander said without looking up. Like everyone else he could feel the aura that G gave off. It offended the senses and made you weary. Danger always followed him no matter how innocent he acted. He was also slightly irritated that he had come inside. He never let anyone in there. It seemed to risky for him.

"I've decided something." G said smiling. "I no longer need you…so I thought I'd kill you for fun." He said plainly. Hollander looked up from the book and saw that he was serious. He put it down and stood up.

"Is that really necessary?" He asked. G nodded and the smile widened giving him a more demented look. Hollander knew one thing for certain. He really was going to die. He could move fast and all that, but G was totally different. He knew that he had created a monster and now it was coming to kill him. The irony of it all made him laugh, but it was short. He decided that fighting would not change anything. "I see. Then get it over with. I see no way out of this."

G would have like for him to struggle, beg, or something that would make this more fun. He sighed knowing that that was not going to happen and merely stabbed him through the heart making sure to leave things a nice bloody mess. It was something to look at other than a dead man. He could not help laughing at the scene. There was no fear in Hollanders eyes, but oh did it look painful. It made him perfectly happy to see that.

"And so we say goodbye." G said while he left with sword over his shoulder and a grin on his face. He looked perfectly mad and had anyone seen him they would have been smart to run away. He was in a killing mood and would have been content to continue the slaughter.

**If my fate is to die, I must simply laugh.**

**Magus**-Chrono Trigger**  
**

Angeal found himself in deepground once again. He did not particularly like being here. He had only come thanks to G. He had plans to get rid of Shinra and Angeal wanted to help. There were certain things about what they did that he did not agree with and he could not see any of the rebel factions taking care of that. They were still a small time operation.

He found himself near Hollander's office. He found the door open which was strange. Normally they were not allowed in unless given permission. He understood once he noticed him dead with his blood all over the room. Someone had enjoyed killing him. "Who did this?" He whispered still standing in the doorway. He already knew the answer to that. This was something that Genesis would do. He did not know the reason why. "Father." It was barely audible, but he was thinking about when he found them here. He had been horrified that Hojo had even touched him and yet he still went on experimenting on him. He had claimed that it was to keep him alive. He had done the same to G so Angeal did not object. There was little he could object to since he had been a child at the time.

Angeal turned around unable to look any longer. He was not entirely sure what to do now. He still needed to find G. He walked on and found G in the expected place. He found himself hating him. He had killed his father after all, but for now it was only conjecture. G did not even look at him, but gave him his standard cold greeting.

"Hello, Angeal." He said. Angeal merely went to stand by him and nodded in his general direction. G could definitely tell that he had found him. He was not in the mood to glaze things over, but he knew that if he did not say the right thing Angeal might leave and he would have to kill him. "I see you found him." Angeal nodded and looked at him letting his anger show. "Angry that I killed that traitor? You seem surprised."

Angeal was surprised. He could hardly imagine Hollander betraying them. He had saved their lives and now G had repaid him with death. "Yes. I find it hard to believe you." He answered. G took a moment to think. He had to make him believe that it was right. He honestly needed his help for this.

"Maybe so, but it's true. He merely used us Angeal. He was nearly to the point where he no longer needed us, but I found out. I ended it before he could cut us loose." Genesis said trying to sound angry. He was thankful that Angeal had almost no mental ability. He was unable to check if his story was right or not. He could see that he was contemplating if it was a lie or not.

"He was my father. You should have discussed this with me. Maybe then I would find it easier to believe you." Angeal said angrily. He was close to losing his temper. The smug look on G's face was not making it easier.

"In the end someone would have had to die. He intended to get rid of us knowing that we would not like it." G stated. Angeal seemed to soften on that one. G had said it as fact and with conviction. Lying was always his strongpoint. Seeing through them was always difficult and he could make almost anyone believe his words.

"Is that the truth, Genesis?" He simply nodded. "I see." Angeal said turning away. He got the feeling that that was not exactly the real story, but he had no proof of it. "So what do we do now?"

"That's simple. We will continue as before, but there will be miner changes. There is something that I will need you to do."

**Part 2: **Virus (conclusion)

Hojo found the report on his desk when he arrived. He knew exactly what it was when he saw it. He had asked Sephiroth to look into something since it was of a serious manner and he could not trust the Turks to deal with it. They did report directly to the president and if he found out he would be furious.

He looked through it and knew immediately that Sephiroth had enlisted the help of the Turks. He was nervous about that, but he knew that Sephiroth would make sure that it stayed between them. _He had better have done that._ Hojo thought as he looked through the report.

At first the investigation had been inconclusive. The virus had nearly destroyed itself along with everything else on the computer. They later found a small remnant of it tucked away in the hard drive. It was just enough to identify it. It had actually been used before when Hojo had first started this job. That was quite some time ago.

_I remember that. _ Hojo remembered it very clearly. It had destroyed all of Hollanders notes on his experiments with Genesis, but in his hurry to leave had had left behind his family. His wife had participated and Shinra wanted them all dead. It had been Hojo who had requested that they let her and her son live. He could see that Hollander had done some experimentation with the baby, but must have changed his mind. Genesis was already six years old. He was an evil child and very hard to control. Hojo suspected that to be the reason for his other experiments on his wife.

Hojo found her useless and decided to use her for other things. She was very uncooperative so Hojo killed her and used the corpse for other experiments and took Angeal as a prototype. He knew that Hollander had tried to perfect Genesis, but that seemed to have failed. Angeal was nothing compared to him. Hojo did hope that would change over the years as he grew. Hojo was curious as to what he could do with them.

He understood that Hollander was angry with him for taking his job away from him. He resented the fact that Hojo was smarter at the game then him. He did not understand what Shinra wanted. He could not fulfill their wishes, but Hojo could. He had stolen his way into it.

_It must have been him. He took those files and planted the virus so I would have to start over, but I do keep other copies. I learned from that first experience. That virus had wiped out some of my research as well. _Hojo thought. He was actually quite pleased to finally know who was behind it. He did have to wonder why he was so interested in his research on the girl and Sephiroth. If he dared show his face in Shinra he would be killed. If he wanted to live then he would have to give them something better than Sephiroth.

Of course, Hojo was already working on that. He was finally beginning to make progress on his own knowing that _they_ were not going to do it anytime soon. There was something else about all this that bothered him. It had been quite some time since then and suddenly Hollander was showing his face. Hollander had had years to plan something and Hojo could only imagine that he was ready to put it in motion. He had no idea that Hollander was gone and that someone else was picking up the peaces, but with a different design. One that could bring about terrible results.

**Author:** Well, now you know more about G, Angeal and his family and the mystery of the missing files is concluded. You know who took them and you have a hint of what might be done with them. The next chapter will be the one I was originally going to submit. She will be 18 and CC has officially begun in my story!


	30. trouble with a T

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 30 trouble with a T

It has been over a year and once again it is my birthday. Sephiroth is paying me a visit and says that he will not be alone. Somehow Zack and Angeal found out today was my birthday and they all want to celebrate. I was glad to hear that G was not in Midgar. He had mysteriously vanished for a while. There is also Sheila. She has already given me my present of the day. She made a huge fuss about it.

"You're eighteen now! My how time flies and you barely look over sixteen." She said smiling. For some reason that made me think. How long will I look like this? How long until I finally look my age? Will I ever? What about my real age? I really did not have time to ponder any of this since Sheila was not done yet. She had hardly started. She did not sing to me or anything like that, but she did talk a lot about herself. She told me a lot about her past. It was one of those, "When I was your age..." stories.

I hardly listened finding her life even more boring than mine had been. I felt Sephiroth listening in as well. I felt him sigh. _Yeah. You understand my pain, but don't do anything about it._ He laughed and gave the obvious reply.

_What can I do?_ He said._ We'll be there shortly. _He said laughing slightly. I sighed once again not exactly liking that Angeal and Zack were going to be there. Sometimes they can be a little much for me. Zack just seems so energetic all of the time and he is also very excitable. I hear that he does have a serious side, but I have yet to see it. According to Angeal and Sephiroth he can be too serious.

"Alright then!" Sheila said clapping her hands. This made me remember that she was still in the room. I had stopped paying attention to her completely and she had never noticed. "I have to go. Have a good birthday!" She said on her way out. I was relieved. Now I could relax and think.

Over the past year little has actually happened. I have had few dreams of _him_ and almost none of my family. The last one of them came shortly after I dreamt of my mother. There were others, but they were brief. It was kind of strange. It was from her point of view. It felt odd to see everything through someone else's eyes. There was also the fact that I could not hear anything. She was alone and I had no idea why. After a while I realized it was before I was born.

She was not at home with my brothers. She was somewhere I had never been. (We did not travel much.) I guessed that it was some sort of vacation, but everything looked odd. There was a red tint to everything as if there were something wrong with her. It made me feel a little bit worried.

She was walking slowly on a sidewalk going somewhere and the sun was setting. She would periodically look at certain things that caught her eye and there were a few times when she stopped and looked at herself in a mirror or window. She looked very sad and tired. It looked as if something terrible had just happened to her. There were dark circles under her eyes and I wondered if she got much sleep. Did she have nightmares like I do sometimes?

She stopped at a crosswalk waiting for her turn to go and to her right was an abandoned building. Apparently she found it very interesting and decided on a whim to go inside. It was old and the wood was beginning to rot. It was strangely dark in there even though there were several windows and few were boarded up. She stopped at the bottom of the staircase and looked up. After a few moments she slowly went upstairs trying to be careful not to fall through any of them. There was only one room up there. It looked as if there had been walls once and someone had simply taken them out for whatever reason.

She went over to a window and looked out. She was overlooking the street where she had just been standing. Something seemed to startle her and she whirled around to find someone sitting in the corner. This person sat in the darkest corner of the room and it made it hard to see him or her. I was fairly sure that it was a man. She cautiously walked up to him. He acted as if he were injured. He was very muscular and had dark hair. There was something about his eyes. She simply stared into his eyes. It gave me the time to notice that his eyes were glowing ever so slightly.

_Could this person be from Gaia?_

She looked at him more closely and found that he was hurt. She started to help him and I noticed that he was watching her very carefully. He seemed to expect something else from her other than what he was seeing. It made sense that my mother would try to help him. She was always like that. He said something to her and she turned around just in time to get punched in the face. It surprised me so much I felt like I had gotten hit as well.

She looked up at him and found another stranger standing over her smirking. He said something and then kicked her. I was wondering if that man would help her. She had helped him after all. Thankfully he did decide to help her. Suddenly he did not look hurt as if he had found the strength he needed to get up and move. He was fast and literally knocked the man out cold. In fact, I would go so far as to say he might have killed him.

The way he did it made me wonder. The way he fought seemed so familiar to me, but the strangeness of the dream would not let me see him clearly. Once he was done with that he turned to her to make sure that she was ok. In the end he picked her up and left with her. She fell asleep or possibly that was all she wanted to show me. This is where I was finally able to hear something.

"It's not much, but it's all I can give you. I always wanted to tell you." She said.

It made me want to cry. She had used all her energy to show me a part of a secret. I really had no idea what it really meant, but I had come to the conclusion that she had met someone from this world. This being the first time I have heard or seen of this person I have little to go by. _Why didn't anyone tell me about that?_ I never did get an answer to that question.

I tried asking _him _about it, but he will not answer me either. He seems to be the only person that would know since he knows so much about me. I eventually gave up asking at all and I do think about it every now and then. It is just another one of those things that I will not be telling Sephiroth for a while. _I don't even know what he would think of all my dreams._

For the past six months Sephiroth has been in Midgar. He has his own apartment and everything. It is close to the building in one of the nicer sectors. One where the rich prosper and the poor are ignored or simply do not exist. He said one day I might actually get to see it. Angeal lives in the same complex as him so they have noticeably become better friends. (They actually live right across from one another!)

"We're here!" Zack said smiling. I was off in la la land and they surprised me. Everyone came in bearing gifts, but Sephiroth was empty handed. Zack gave me a hug and then sat my present in my lap. "Happy birthday, Lilia."

I opened it and found one of the more expected gifts. For once I was glad to get the usual art kit of pencils and whatnot. I had sort of run out and Sheila had not seen fit to get me any this time. Angeal got me earrings. They were knives made of silver. Something about that surprised me.

"We should go." Sephiroth said. I had no idea what he meant.

"Where are we going?" I asked. He merely shook his head and said that would ruin the surprise while he smiled at me. "Ok…."

We left and instead of going up we went down to the first floor. I had no idea where we were going. There was a car waiting to take us wherever. We got in and like good gentlemen they let me go in first and Sephiroth held the door open for me. Then he got in followed by Angeal and Zack. All of them had this weird excitement in their eyes. _This must be a good surprise._

We left Shinra building and went out into one of the sectors. The strange thing I noticed was that even though I think Midgar is so ugly I found that the homes here were not so bad. They were a lot like metal Victorian homes that did not look quite as good. Seeing all of these places up close gave me a new perspective of them. I was so engrossed in seeing the sights that I hardly noticed how close Sephiroth was to me.

When we arrived at our destination I realized that this must be his apartment. It was a tall and bland building. When we got out he pointed up to one of the upper floors stating that that is where we were going. I felt a little excited, but a little nervous. I was also wondering how this had been arranged. Hojo seems to be letting me leave a lot more for some reason.

We went in and I noticed the small group of guards stationed outside the building. It was well lit out there so if anyone tried to trespass they have a good chance of spotting them. There were around thirty floors and there was a restaurant on the top floor and on the first floor.

I am really glad that I did not have high expectations. Zack could not wait for me to see it. Apparently there was something funny about Sephiroth's room. It seemed kind of bare. It was only a one-room apartment, but it had a separate kitchen, dining room, and living room. In other words it was really big. There was almost nothing on the walls, which were gray, but there was a place for him to hang his weapons. There was, of course, a TV set into the wall and surround sound as I discovered. (Scared the hell out of me.)

I did not see what was so funny at all. Zack could not wait to show me something. It was not actually in Sephiroth's apartment. We went across the hall to Angeals room. "Ok. Now you've seen his room." He said laughing a little. "Now you're going to see what it should look like." He said.

Sephiroth just stood in his doorway sighing. This was utter foolishness to him and a waste of time. Angeal opened the door and I was surprised to see that it was very similar to Sephiroth's. The key differences were the walls. In here there was wallpaper with simple designs on them. The floor was wood and tile and it was in general a homier place.

Sephiroth had apparently decided that all of that was more than he needed and changed it to a simpler one. One with no designs whatsoever. It kind of felt as if there were something missing in his apartment. I could not quite put my finger on it. "See the difference?" I nodded. "Sephiroth had them strip everything down in his room and paint it _that_ color. They looked so confused." Zack told me. It sounded about right.

"Did you?" I said looking him in the eye. He simply nodded. I laughed at him a little bit. _It's just like you, but there seems to be something missing. I don't know what._

_You're right. Something is missing._ He said. It felt like there was something behind his words. Like he knew exactly what it was and was not going to tell me…at least not yet.

"Well. Shouldn't we get started?" Zack said suddenly bringing us back to the outside world. We both nodded and headed back to the elevator. "We're going to the restaurant on the top floor." He leaned in closer. "The food's better up there."

"Ok." I said. I had to take his word on it. So far I have not eaten anything that I really thought tasted bad, which surprises me a little. I expected to find something that I did not like at all. Although I have sort of kept up the thing I did not like on Earth. Peas, spinach, etc. I hated those and I found things here that look like them, but are not. They tasted good and now I like them!

When we arrived I noticed how nice it was in there. Long black and red table cloths with dark wooden chairs. Low lights from grand chandeliers. There was a fish tank sporting exotic fish by the entrance and by all of the booths. Each one had different fish. Some of them looked carnivorous and some not. There was one fish actually eating one of its own in the tank by us.

Even though there were several windows they were tinted so that only a certain amount of light came in. There was one tall window on each wall that let in all the light it could. There were, of course, no tables where the light hit. The sun managed to show through the fog and whatnot surrounding the city. Apparently they had picked this spot for just that reason. They were simply accents to the room. I found it to be a pleasing setting, but it seemed to me like they were trying too hard.

"Hello!" A happy and robust man said. He was dressed in a suit and tie and held himself very well. "How many?" Zack answered by holding up four fingers. He understood and got the menus while motioning for us to follow. "Table or booth?"

"Booth." I answered. Everyone looked at me slightly surprised but he did listen and gave us what I had asked for.

He bowed and placed the menus down before us. "Here you are. Someone will be with you shortly to take your order." He said before leaving quickly. I was glad to have him leave. There was something about his smile that bothered me. I shivered slightly. This prompted them to think that I was cold. I had to shake my head and convince them otherwise.

We ordered or I should say they ordered and then Sephiroth ordered for me as usual. He usually does that and orders me something that I like. I am pretty sure that all of it is different because it never tastes the same. We sat there talking for a while and I guess I completely missed the part where they mentioned that it was my birthday. Suddenly there were people standing around us singing and holding a chocolate cake. I think that it is chocolate anyway.

I sighed and looked away from them while Zack smiled and laughed because this had been his idea. Angeal sat there smiling slightly and Sephiroth sat there sighing as well. He understood my pain. He knew that I hated this and right now I hated it even more.

_I'm sorry._ He said.

_I know. Zack did it and I will have to pay him back for that._ I felt him laugh slightly and finally they were done singing. They sat the cake in front of me and told me to make my wish and all that. I really had few things to wish for, but there was one thing that I had been wishing for a long time. _Don't let Sephiroth die._ That was my wish. I wanted him to live instead of dying, but I still did not know how that was going to happen. I blew out the candles to seal this wish and of course they wanted to know what it was (mostly Zack).

Once we finally got our order we ate more silently. The food really was good and I normally did not talk a lot to anyone. They really had more to talk about than I did since they were all in soldier. I let them talk and every once in a while I joined in where necessary. It was overall a very pleasant time.

When we were done eating Angeal and Zack left. They had done their part in celebrating my birthday and they understood that Sephiroth and I wanted to be alone. We went back to his apartment and sat on the couch. He kissed me and then went into his room to get something. He gave no hint of what it might be, but I knew that it was my birthday present. He had not come with one before. He returned seemingly empty handed and sat next to me.

"I've thought a lot about this. How I feel about you and what I want to do. I want to get you out of there, but I see that is very difficult. So long as they are convinced that you are important to the company they won't let you go no matter what rank I am." He said looking away.

I leaned against him urging him on. I wanted to hear him. I wanted to know what my present was mostly. I could see that it was important to him since there was a little speech attached. "I know how I feel. How I really feel about you, Lilia. I feel so foolish for not realizing it sooner, but it's hard for me not ever had these feelings." He paused for a moment and took my hand. "I love you."

The words were so clear I could hardly believe them. He had not hesitated or fumbled for the words. He was absolutely sure about that. I felt my heart jump with excitement. I knew I loved him even though I had been reluctant to tell him. I smiled and let him kiss me again. "I love you too, Sephiroth. I have for a while, but I could never say it."

He pulled me closer and held me tightly. "You never had to. I always knew that you felt something that was until recently beyond my understanding." I could feel him rubbing my back and I buried my face in his chest. "I love you so much. That's why…."

"You get so jealous?" I finished leaning back enough to see his face. He smiled and nodded.

"I was restraining myself from what I really wanted to do to them. I've killed people to protect you. That was when I did not understand how I felt and I could hardly control myself. Now I know I must be more careful. I can't go around killing soldiers. I could lose my title and that would make things harder for us." He said. I put my arms around his neck and kissed him.

"I don't care how many offers I get…you're the only one I want." I said laughing. I could see all of the people that had done so and I could see Sephiroth punishing them all. He had hurt a lot of soldiers for that many times, but there were a few that he did not know about.

"I have something to give you." He said fumbling through his pocket. He could not get it out before we were violently interrupted.

"Sephiroth! He's here!" Zack shouted while banging on the door. It surprised us both so we nearly jumped onto the floor. He kept it up until Sephiroth reached the door. "Hojo's on his way up you'd better go now!"

"What's he talking about?" I said looking at Sephiroth.

"We didn't ask for permission to take you anywhere. They wouldn't sign off on time so we…took you anyway." Zack explained. Sephiroth nodded telling me that it was all true.

"You could get into a lot of trouble! Why did you do that?" He did not answer me out loud.

_So I could give you my present. I wanted it to be special. There in the lab it would hardly mean anything. I'm trying to free you from that._

_How are you going to do that if you can't see me?! _I shouted back to him.

"Hurry up!" Zack shouted at us. He looked down the hallway towards the elevator and jumped. "Crap! He's already up here." He jumped over into Angeal's apartment to hide saying he was sorry. Sephiroth closed the door and locked it. He sighed and told me to go in his room. I nodded and did so. He was going to pretend that I was not there.

"Open up boy!" Hojo shouted as loud as he could. He banged on the door until Sephiroth opened. I watched through Sephiroth's eyes. I wanted to know what Hojo was going to do. "Where is she?"

"Lilia?"

"Yes! Where is she, boy?" While he asked and got barely an answer he scanned the room carefully. He saw no sign of me in there so he assumed that I was hiding somewhere.

"I don't know. I haven't seen her today." He said calmly. "Shouldn't she be in the lab or the chamber?" Hojo nodded.

"She should, but she isn't. I know you took her! I have proof of that. So stop this nonsense and tell me where she's hiding. After this stunt you'll be lucky to even know where she is." He said angrily. Hojo was contemplating moving me now that he knew Sephiroth would go against him to free me. Sephiroth sighed and told me to come out. It was just too much trouble to do this if he knew for a fact that he took me.

I slowly came out of his room and walked over to Sephiroth. Hojo glared at him and then at me giving me a questioning look. "She didn't know I had done this without consent." Sephiroth said. He did not want me to get in trouble as well.

"Is that so?" Hojo said looking at me. I nodded. "I know that those two," he said pointing toward Angeal's apartment, "were in on it as well." We both knew what that meant. "They will be punished." Hojo made his way to the door and told us to follow. We really did not have much choice so we followed and he knocked on Angeal's door. He told them to come as well and they knew that they were in trouble. We sulked all the way back to the building. Sephiroth and I were the only ones who could find out what he was going to do. Angeal and Zack were left to guess and envision horrible things. Angeal really did not care what he did to him, but Zack was afraid of him.

"I think all three of you will be going away for a while." Hojo said speaking to them. "You will be staying in the building permanently. That means materia is no longer a part of your training."

"What!? That's hardly fair when I didn't do anything!" I glared at them for that. Materia training meant I could leave Midgar and now that was out of the question.

"You are all at fault and so all will be punished." Hojo replied smirking.

When we returned to the building they dropped me off to the chamber and I listened in on them as they made their way up to the presidents office. Sephiroth noticed me doing that and cut me off saying he did not want me to worry. He was sure that everything would be fine. About an hour later he talked to me again.

I had worried about them the entire time wondering exactly what they were going to do to them. _We are being transferred. There isn't much they can do to me. I am too important as the president said. Angeal and Zack are lucky to still be first class. They have been reprimanded and we are being separated. I won't be able to see you for a while._

He seemed to hate that last part. _I'm sorry. You should have thought about this more carefully. Did you expect him not to notice that I was missing?_

_No. I thought there would be enough time. I suppose I was wrong, but that's ok. It was worth it or rather it would have been._

_Are you sure?_ I still had no idea what his present for me was and he obviously was not going to tell me. I was a little disappointed that he could not give it to me.

_Yes. You would have liked it I hope._ I could hear the sadness in his voice. This had been important to him and now it would have to wait. _I will just have to wait to give it to you._

_I guess so. I'll miss you. Do you know how long you'll be gone?_

_No. They'll just tell me when I am allowed near you. I'm sorry about this. It was my fault. I let Zack talk me into doing this. I wanted to and he just helped convince me that I should._

_Maybe you shouldn't listen to him then._ I said. That was the end of our conversation. I felt really glad that I could talk to him like this. It would definitely help since I would not be going anywhere for a while and I could not see him.

**Author:** So it's all nice and official. They love each other and Sephiroth risked a lot to say it. Too bad Hojo had to find out so she couldn't get the present. It's the one time he let the camera go and decided to check it. Sephiroth has good friends unfortunately they were too slow so they couldn't leave fast enough to miss him. :(


	31. And so it begins

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

(This only applies to people who have seen the previous ch. 31 that I posted.) Thought you wouldn't see a real chapter so soon did you? I explain the reason at the end of the chapter….

Ch. 31 And so it begins….

In Midgar there has been a lot of unrest. Friends have mysteriously gone missing. Fathers, brothers, sisters, no matter who the story is the same. People have now labeled a spot in Midgar as a place of no return. You go there and you might never be seen again. Of course, there is always the person or group that claims to have gone (though they never did) and come back fine. They are the type that does not believe in the supernatural. That is how these incidents are labeled by most. Some think that Shinra is doing this. Of course, they would be the more radical peoples living there.

They did learn that some Shinra soldiers went missing in exactly the same spot. This made them wonder. Was it really Shinra doing it, and why take their soldiers? It was certainly a good question that no one would answer. Shinra made no comment about it. It was not widely public knowledge anyway. Only people living in that sector knew. They were almost afraid to tell anyone. What would Shinra do if they did?

This was only the beginning of the disappearances.

It became public by accident. One person that just could not take it anymore. He was tired of them doing nothing. His son had gone missing and he had been one of those soldiers. He wanted the company that he worked for to explain what happened to him. He did not want to wait. When they did nothing he went to the news station and sold them his story. Within twenty-four hours everyone in Midgar and anyone watching anywhere else knew. It was not something that Shinra would have wanted. It showed a small amount of weakness. Midgar was the Shinra headquarters. It was suppose to be the safest place to be with all the military personnel.

The report came as a surprise to soldiers not stationed there. Sephiroth was away and altogether alone now. He had been stationed in Junon for the time being and he could not return to Midgar. He watched the report wondering if they were going to tell them about that. _As long as she's ok…it doesn't really matter._ He thought. He reached into his pocket and found her present still there. He pulled it out. It was a small box. The real prize was inside it. He did not even bother opening it. He knew what it looked like. _I suppose I can wait…a bit longer. _He put it away and sighed. It really was boring there with nothing to do.

He found himself wondering how long they would make him stay away. It had hardly been a month and he was starting to miss her. He had only been away from her for six months at the longest. He frowned knowing that they were just being cautious. _They were important._

"Our source has told us that around fifty incidents have happened in that area of Midgar. It is labeled as a dangerous place to be avoided. Here at the station we are truly appalled that the company would allow something like this to happen!" The reporter said. She seemed very angry. "One of our reporters went there on her own and has yet to return so we do understand how hard it can be. We do hope that they are found."

Sephiroth turned off the TV. He really did not want to hear anymore-depressing news like that. He already felt depressed enough. He would be here for another month and then he would be stationed somewhere else. Here he really did not have to do anything. Fill out a few papers here and there, authorize stuff, and sign something when they come in. It was not something he enjoyed. He liked to be out in the field fighting. He enjoyed it, but he never let it get too far like in the lab. He knew he could hurt people.

There was a point where he could feel nothing. Any pain was ignored until afterward. The only thing he saw was his target and if someone got in the way they were dead as well. It was something he hated mostly for the fact that he could not control it. He tried hard to only kill those necessary and let everyone else take care of the rest.

He sat there tapping the pen on the table. Every once in a while he would look at the time counting the minutes until he could go. There was nothing else to do. _Lilia, I wish you were here. You make things more interesting…even if they aren't._

* * *

Zack found himself stationed near Wutai. He sulked for a while, but learned that he had to get out of that. He was depressing everyone else. He could not believe that they had done this to them. _Is what we did really that bad?_ He thought. To him it was nothing. They were going to bring her back after all. Of course, he could only speak for himself. It really did look like Sephiroth did not want to do that. He could not blame him. From the few stories Sephiroth had told him about what it was like there he understood well enough. Something needed to be done.

For the moment he was commanding a group that was suppose to patrol around Wutai. Since most negotiations with Godo have failed they decided that if they let them patrol every once in a while there would be no fighting. As long as it does not appear that Wutai is resisting then Shinra will not attack. Most of the people think that they are secretly occupying the city. They are using this as a means to control them. Zack felt that that was probably right. Most of the time no one would talk to the soldiers, but there were a few people that did. He learned a lot from them. Mostly how not to piss them off. He made sure that no one in his patrols did anything to anger the people. They should be setting some kind of example.

He realized how far they really did have to go though. The soldiers hated the people and they hated them right back. He tried hard to be different. Sometimes he felt annoyed by everyone. It was in his nature to be upbeat and happy. Being here seeing all the hatred in their eyes made it hard. They were tired, but they were not willing to give up the fight. He did understand. If it were his home he would fight to the death to protect it.

"Alright you guys get in line!" He shouted. He was not like the others that always sounded strict, but he really was. His men were always on time after being late once. They learned fast that he was serious no matter how he acted. Almost everyone was there on time, but there was one guy there late. He was new, but Zack had to set an example. The rules he used applied to everyone including him. "You're late!"

"Sir, I just transferred this morning, sir." He handed him his papers and Zack flipped through them. He was only late because of that. His plane had just arrived.

"You won't be punished for being late this time. I can see you had no choice." He said. "Cloud Strife…stand over there." He said pointing. He put away his papers making sure not to lose them. He had already done that once and decided that he would never do it again after what he went through. It was a nightmare having to request it again. "Ok. Now that we're all here you know what to do. Divide up and go your normal routes. If I hear that any of you got into it with the locals you'll answer to me." He said. That meant that if they beat up someone he would hurt them twice as bad. "Cloud, you'll come with me." He nodded and came.

They walked around Wutai and Cloud seemed totally lost. "This must be your first time here." He nodded. Zack had skimmed through his file and noticed a few things about him. He had applied for Soldier, but did not make it. He got stuck being an MP and reapplied every time the chance came. He seemed disappointed by that.

"Yes. I was stationed in Junon most of the time." He replied. They stopped at a café. Someone was making a fuss. Zack made sure it was not one of his men before doing anything. If they were just locals there was nothing they could do. They were locals and they were angry at each other for some reason. Zack realized that he did know one of them. They had talked a few times.

"We'll just wait here until it's over." Zack said leaning against a wall.

"Isn't there something we can do?" Zack just shook his head. "Why?"

"If we get involved it would only make us look like the bad guy. Of course, most of them would say us doing nothing makes us bad too. Doing nothing here is the best option. We could get in trouble ourselves for it." He really did not like being in trouble with Shinra. He knew that they had gotten off easy for taking Lilia. Sephiroth had talked him out of throwing them out.

"I really don't get it." Cloud said watching them fight.

"It takes a while." Zack replied shrugging.

When the fight was over they moved on and as Zack had expected they became a target. The fight had gathered a good-sized crowd and now they were making sure Cloud and Zack knew what they thought of them. They made sure at the same time not to touch either of them. You could call each other names as much as you want, but starting a fight could mean death for Wutai. They knew that the president would not hesitate to send some troops to annihilate them. Once they were out of sight they both sighed and sat down for a few minutes.

"So why don't you tell me about yourself?" Zack asked. It caught Cloud off guard. He was not sure what to say. He was a little anti-social so it was hard for him to get started. Once he started he just kept on going. Like everyone else he found Zack easy to talk to.

"So you joined because of Sephiroth." He nodded. "I've seen a lot of people do that, but I think it's stupid. If you just want to be like him then forget it. It's impossible." Zack told him.

"I don't really want to be like him." Cloud replied. Zack knew that it was more complicated than that.

"I make it a point to get to know everyone in my squads pretty well, Cloud. I've heard just about everything. Mostly I hear, "I want to be just like Sephiroth". What most people don't realize is that he isn't what Shinra makes him out to be."

"Is that so?" Cloud said. He was definitely a skeptic. Shinra knew how to advertise and make a lot of people believe almost anything.

"Yes. I do know him after all."

"You know him?!" Cloud blurted out. He could not believe that Zack actually knew Sephiroth. He had so many questions that came out before he could even think about it. Sephiroth was his idol and he really did want to know what he was really like. Zack did not even bother to answer any of them.

"We should go." He said leading the way. Cloud pestered him a little about it until Zack threatened him. He really could be mean when he wanted to.

Once they returned to their camp everyone was there and no one had gotten into a single fight. He was proud of them. It was something that he had been stressing for a few weeks and he was just now making progress with them. He just had a few more months of this before he was transferred. He hoped that he would be able to go back to Midgar sometime soon. He was actually wondering how everyone was doing. _They must be going crazy not being able to see each other._

* * *

Angeal found himself in Corel. He unfortunately got stuck escorting Scarlet to Gold Saucer. It was not something he liked at all. She was so annoying and her laugh was even worse. All she did was talk and flirt with whomever she thought she could get something out of. At the moment she was ok, but he knew that before they left she would definitely have had a few too many.

In Corel he noticed that things had changed dramatically since the reactor had been built. The town was prosperous before, but now things seemed to be going downhill. The mining operations were lax. He knew it was partially because Shinra was weeding out any alternatives. Without that industry the town seemed to be going broke. He also noticed the looks they got from some of the residents. Some of them were even brave enough to approach them and say a few words.

One man approached then and Angeal had to do his job. He was supposed to protect her along with everyone else that was escorting her. He got in the mans way and told him to just turn around. It would have been the easy thing to do, but he was mad and she was going to hear about it. Angeal knew that she would retaliate in some way. She really did hate to be insulted.

"You're the one! Because of you our town is failing! You and your stupid reactors." He paused for a moment. "Because of you we lost a lot of good people. Do you remember that?" He said fuming.

She looked thoughtful for a moment, but most of them knew it was fake. "No, I'm sorry. I don't. You'll have to be more specific."

"The day you came to take care of those rebels! You killed my wife and daughter!" He said with Angeal holding him back.

"I do remember that day, but the people are a blur. It's hard to remember so many people." She said coyly. He was insulted by that.

"They were the ones who took in that girl and you killed them for that!" He was in tears thinking about it.

"Oh! I remember them. They were a bit whiney. Begging for their lives is not something I like to hear." She said shrugging. "Besides they were hiding someone and we must punish them regardless." She said. She smiled the whole time. It had been seven years since then and she really did not care now. She whispered something to Angeal and left with the rest of the group. Angeal stood there knowing what he was suppose to do, but also knowing that he could not do that.

"My orders are to kill you. She doesn't want you to be a problem later on. I suggest that you don't follow us. Otherwise I really will have to kill you." Angeal said. Then he turned around and left, but he did hear what the man had to say.

"I was away when it happened. I had been gone for three months and come home to find then in graves. You have no idea what it's like." It was true. Angeal had never had to go through something like that, but he did know what it was like to lose family. His father was dead and though he really did not know him it did hurt some. He caught up to them and they went to Gold Saucer. They never asked him anything and he did not say a word. It was to be his secret forever along with many other things.

Thinking about this reminded him of something G had asked of him. He was definitely having second thoughts about the request. He knew that if anyone found out then he would be in a lot of trouble. If Sephiroth found out he was sure that he would kill him. Friend or not there would always be certain things that are just unforgivable. This would be one of them if he could go through with it. There were times when he just wanted to say no, but he always found a reason to do it. G was a smooth talker and he could talk you into anything. It was something G had been very persistent about and that is the only reason he agreed.

_I only hope that they can forgive me once it is over._ For some reason he felt as if someone had answered him. Somehow he knew that things would turn out right. If was an odd feeling for him. He really felt like there was someone else in the room with him other than the soldiers and Scarlet.

Author: All praise my teacher for not showing up today! He's having a grandkid so he couldn't come to class. That means that I was able to work on a chapter and you guys got a present! Have a good Thanksgiving and all that. I know this makes my thanksgiving even better. I know seeing some Reviews when I get back to look at them will also make me happy.

Whether or not I have a chapter ready for next week will be a different story. For now I'm going to say I will, but no promises. School sucks right now. They want everything done and if I don't I could fail the class. Especially the one that only has 2 assignments. (Thank goodness he is a nice teacher though!)


	32. Disappearing

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 32 Disappearing

**Part 1:** In Hot water

The president glared down at his desk. There were several reports lying there that he knew he would have to look at. They had important stamped on them. It was something that the Turks were investigating. Over the last few months some of their patrols have simply disappeared. It was nothing at first, but this continuance had brought some urgency to the matter. There was also the fact that every news agency around the world now knew about this. He needed this to go away.

He also noticed another report. It was much smaller and less significant so he discarded it for now. If it was not very important then it could wait. He opened the other report and saw that so far only a few small patrols have disappeared and so for now there was little to worry about. They had gone missing close to Midgar and some were inside the city when it happened. That was of some concern. He looked at the list ignoring the whole descriptions. He could always look at it again tomorrow.

_Lost contact with Patrol 11 at 1400 hrs in sector 1._

_Lost contact with Patrol 8 at 2100 hrs on the outskirts near sector 5._

_Lost contact with Patrol 25 at 1300hrs in sector 1._

_Lost contact with Patrol 13 at two hrs later on the outskirts near sector 5._

So far there were only four major incidents, but he got the feeling that there were going to be more and it was now becoming a problem elsewhere. All of the other reports were small and more or less insignificant. He knew that there would be someone to complain. _Something is afoot and we must get to the bottom of it before we lose them all. If that were to happen then we would lose face. The world would know we aren't as strong as we should be and Sephiroth isn't going to be enough to stop them._ He thought.

The report was troubling since it did indicate that this trend was going to continue. He sat back in his chair wondering what to do. He had already sent Sephiroth and those other two away due to their foolishness. Perhaps if there are more reports of things like this happening elsewhere then he could send orders for them to investigate. For now he the Turks would do. Things in Midgar had to appear safe.

He put that file in his desk and picked up the other one. He was not sure what it was, but he still had some time left before he was going to leave. It was a report of something that Sephiroth had requested the Turks do. It was actually something for Hojo. He read through it and found it equally troubling. Missing files and a virus they have seen before is nothing to be sneeze at.

This made him glad that he had forced the Turks to report everything to him no matter what anyone tells them. It is part of the rules they must follow. If they chose not to do as he asked then he could fire or simply punish them depending on how much use they are. So far they have done the right thing.

He saw in there that Sephiroth had requested this stay between them and that Hojo did not want anyone to know about this, but it was very serious. Losing any type of file could be disastrous. The fact that they were stolen told him that someone might be trying to undermine his research or possibly use it for their own gain. That could mean that they intend to use that information to make soldiers of their own that could rival the power that Shinra held. It was not something he could allow. He looked at the Turks in the room. Rude and Reno were his protection for the week and he decided they needed something to do.

"Rude." He said. Instantly Rude went to his desk awaiting his orders or whatever he had for him. "Bring Hojo to me at once. I'd like to take care of something before I leave." He said without looking up.

"Yes, sir." Rude said routinely. He turned on his heel and left. He had no idea what the president wanted with Hojo, but he had seen the gleam of anger in his eye. Hojo would definitely not be happy with this.

Reno watched him go feeling a bit jealous that he got to go anywhere. He hated having to guard the president, but he would never say that out loud to anyone. He liked his job. It paid well and he got to have fun with it. This was not one of those times. He could not wait for the president to go home. Then it was someone else's job to watch him. He sits at his desk most of the day doing paperwork and all that. It is really boring. Reno liked going on missions a hundred times more than this.

Rude found Hojo in the lab as usual and told him the president would like to see him. He tried to stall saying that he would like to finish up something first, but Rude insisted. The president would not be pleased if they did not hurry. He knew how he could get. Rude was not particularly afraid of him, but getting punished was such a hassle. That meant that he would have to do paperwork since no one else would do it.

"We really should get up there. He seemed a little angry about something." Rude said to him. Hojo sighed and finally put whatever he was doing on hold.

"This had better be important." Hojo whispered. Rude had heard him, but he said nothing. He simply did his job and escorted him to the top floor. He really did hate Hojo, but once again saying something like that was punishable.

Once they arrived he returned to his position and sighed. He noticed that Reno was starting to fidget. It was close to quitting time and he was ready to go. Rude felt the same way, but he was better able to hide such things. It was something he wished that his comrade could learn to do.

"Ah, there you are." President Shinra said. Hojo stood before his desk with his hands behind him waiting for him to rant about whatever. Normally he would care more, but today was different. "I have a report here stating that you've had some missing files. I noticed that you weren't going to tell me about it." Hojo stood up more alert when he heard this. He had no intention of telling him that. "What do you have to say for yourself, Hojo? Do remember that your job is on the line."

Hojo frowned knowing that he was merely bluffing, but he could be wrong. It could be the first time that he meant it and really did end up firing him. That would also be the end of Soldier. He was the only one that really knew what went into it. "It was a minor issue that has already been resolved." Hojo stated. He was not sure what else to say.

"Not according to this. In fact, I see no resolution here at all! What do you think he intended to do with that information?" The president said getting angrier.

"If Hollander is still alive I am sure that he is trying to get revenge of some kind. I had thought him dead, but I suppose that he could have planned something and been preparing for it all these years." Hojo answered truthfully. That was his first assumption.

"Something does need to be done about that and next time you will report this to me or you won't ever have a job!" He said standing. "I'm going home now." He said more calmly. "I expect this to be taken care of, Hojo." He glared at him and left being escorted by Reno and Rude. Both of them sighed ready to go.

Hojo stood there for a moment trying not to get too angry. He should have expected this to happen sooner or later. _I bet the Turks did this._ He thought. He went over to the window just to look outside and clear his head a little. Out of the corner of his eye he thought that he had seen a little boy standing out there. He looked again, but saw nothing. _Must have been my imagination._ He left and went back to the lab to finish his earlier project.

**Part 2:** Messenger

Siren found herself once again going up to the roof. It was about time for Enshii to send another message. She had seen Hojo return to the lab in a foul mood and was beginning to wonder if she would ever get to go. He was worse when he was angry. She was starting to feel very angry herself. This world was becoming infuriating. She was not sure how much longer she could stand being here. She really wished he would give her the go ahead.

She stared at the numbers on the elevator and felt for some reason that it was going slow. It took longer than she remembered to light up the next number each time. It was something that she really hated about staying here. Time seemed to drag on and on where as in the Abyss time moved differently. There really is no time there, but you can reach whatever time you wish without having to wait. However, you did have to be careful. A wrong step could land you somewhere you do not want to be.

Once at the top she was glad to see that the president and all of his guards had already gone home. It made things a lot easier for her. She went outside and found the puppet waiting in the usual place. For some reason she noticed that it seemed a bit annoyed. The way it stood and the strange stare that it gave her said that Enshii was unhappy. He was watching from the other side. It handed her the message and then left very abruptly. She decided to read the message here. It was long compared to the other ones.

_We have lost Dyrem to death. She became careless and was attacked by the dead. Unable to return to the Abyss or to another world she simply died. They are becoming more aggressive in their attempts to stop us now. I have told everyone to make sure that their trips into death are quick. You should be sure to do the same when you return._

_As before you are to stay where you are and watch the girl. I know that you are ready to leave and be done with this, but now is not the time. It shouldn't be much longer though. It tells me that soon our way will not be barred._

She was pleased to hear that she would soon be able to leave this place. She honestly could not wait to see that girl stripped of those fragments and then killed. She was annoying and seemed to know that Siren was not there by accident. She does things on purpose to annoy her.

Siren made her way back to her office and on the way noticed that there was also something written on the back. It was not Scythe's writing.

_Next time be on time, Siren! I waited almost an hour!_

She laughed a little after reading that. _So that is why he was so annoyed. I kept him waiting and he hates that. Waiting to get the girl must be driving him crazy._ Siren thought. She made sure to dispose of the message as well as she could. There was no way that she was going to let anyone find this. She was already still afraid that people were a bit suspicious of her activities.

**Author:**Informative yet still not as good as I wanted. This was a choice for chapter 31, but I changed my mind. I started writing another fanfiction. Don't know exactly when I am going to post it. I want to work out some things first. It's another FF7 one, but it's really different from this one and I haven't read anything like it yet. I'm not going to tell you what it's about yet. I'm still working on the idea. All I can say it that it will be in the future. Haven't decided on a year yet. I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving. I spent it with my roommates family. My dad hit a deer and didn't want to rent a car.


	33. The things we miss

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 33 The things we miss

With Sephiroth gone it seems like Hojo has decided that he can do everything he wants. The annoying scanner is used more often and he is also doing a lot of other annoying things to me. I have yet to decide if I should feel angry about that or just hut. It does hurt a lot. He seems to try to make it that way as if to make up for when he could not. I still want to know what he has in my file. Since he actually keeps them on his own laptop…and there is the fact that it kind of got fried, I do not expect to find out anytime soon if ever.

I know that sometime soon the war should be coming to an end. That makes me happy, but does worry a little bit. If I remember right that ends after the thing with G. I have no idea what happens, but since I have come to know the evil side of him I do not think it will be something good. Sephy tells me that he has not been seen in a while. He has essentially dropped out of the military and Shinra for that matter. I have been hearing about the disappearances and I think I am the only one who knows he had something to do with it. (That would be the little I got to know about that game.)

I have also noticed that Jenova is leaving Sephiroth and me alone for the most part. She just chimes in every once in a while to bother us, but it is nothing big. I have not had any dreams of anyone I know for a long time now. _He_ has even stopped talking to me. I guess that means everything is ok for now. I have had other dreams, but mostly about Sephiroth and me. (No one will ever know about those...maybe him later...)

I have had to wonder about that since he has had those same dreams. Is it just our unconscious minds connecting or is that something we or rather he is doing. I know that I cannot do something like that. He claims that he is not the one doing it. So I guess it may be happening by accident. I guess we miss each other that much. It has been about six months since I last saw him.

_I talked to Angeal._ He told me. I was glad to hear that. I wanted to know how they were all doing

_You did? What's he doing…have you heard about Zack? _I had to ask about that.

_Yes. Angeal is stuck doing escort missions and he told me that he heard Zack was stationed by Wutai doing patrols._

_Really? I bet Angeal hates that. I don't really know what Zack would think._ I heard him laugh slightly.

_He seems to be doing fine. I know that it annoys Angeal. He got stuck escorting Scarlet for a while. _I could not help laughing. I also had to wonder how on earth he kept sane. She could easily drive someone crazy.

_I feel sorry for him._ That was all I could say to that. I hated her enough already. She had been the one to arrest me and then bring me to Hojo after all. Plus there was the fact that she was responsible for killing a lot of innocent people.

_So did I. She's a lot to handle. _I felt him sigh. _I have to go…I just got new orders. _He paused for a moment. I could tell that he was reading over them so I waited. _It seems that I am to investigate some disappearances around here._

_People are disappearing around there too? Sheila told me about it. She said that it was all over the news._

_I remember that. It seems to be spreading all over the world. It looks like it's small right now though. I should get started. It looks like they are asking Angeal and Zack to do the same thing._

_Ok…I love you, Seph._

_I love you, Lilia. Don't worry it shouldn't be too long before I can see you again._

That conversation did not really take that long and that is how it felt. Very short. When we were done Sheila came in to give me breakfast and catch me up on her gossip. I ignored her still thinking about what he said. He was to investigate the disappearances and I was not looking forward to that.

"You seem worried about something." She said. She was giving me a concerned look.

"It's nothing." I said smiling. It was very fake and I hoped that she would not be able to see through it. I really did not want to deal with her.

"Ok…." She said not really sounding convinced. I think that she just decided that it was not worth the trouble. She left and paused long enough to close the door and whatever else she needed to do. I sighed feeling relieved that I would not have to explain or even lie. I just did not really have the energy for that.

Shortly after that Usher came and got me for training. Ever since he learned that we could no longer do materia training he has been bummed out. He really liked doing that and so did I. That is the only thing that I am still mad at them for. It was really important to me.

"So what is it today?" I asked. We had fallen out of our routine. It was something he just did not want to keep anymore.

"Swordplay." He stated. He looked tired. Really tired.

"Is something wrong. You seem tired today." He only glanced at me and then looked away choosing not to answer. We got to the right floor and then got off. We went into his office and he sat down. He also motioned for me to sit down as well.

"I haven't told anyone yet, but…." He paused looking down as if it were painful. "Mirrin has gone missing. It has been hard without her. I have a friend taking care of the kids right now. I look for her all the time, but…." He stopped and clenched his fist on the table.

"I'm sorry. I wish there was something I could do to help, but…." I sighed knowing there really was nothing I could do. I wanted to help him, but there was no way that was going to happen.

"Don't worry about it. I still have a job to do. I know that she would want me to continue teaching you…though there isn't much to teach now." He finished.

I could not think of anything to say. I did not really know how he felt, and I could only imagine the pain. I know that if I lost Sephiroth I would feel like dying. Losing my family was one thing. We were drifting apart and mostly had begun hating each other. I never wished anything bad for them, but I never cried for them. I would cry for him though. I wondered what he would do for me. Would he cry…or just kill someone?

After Usher composed himself we got started training. It was mainly a review of everything he has taught me. It was fairly simple and since I am a lot stronger now I beat him easily. Before we could move on to something else someone came in saying he had a call. We went back to his office and I stood outside waiting to find out what would happen.

"I have to take you back. The building is on lockdown right now. We'll have to take the stairs."

"What's going on?"

"There have been some problems with rebels. This is just a precaution. C'mon." He said locking the door. We went back up to the lab and I went to sit in the chamber. It was really quiet for the longest time. After a while I heard some explosions. They were close, but not actually inside the building. I listened hard trying to figure out what was going on.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on what I had heard trying to find it. It was close and from what I could tell people had been hurt. Some of them were just normal citizens. _If the rebels are doing that then they deserve to get caught. They're hurting innocent people!_ I thought when I felt that. It looked like Usher was right. No one in the building was moving. For the time being everyone was sitting around waiting.

That was the end of that though. About thirty minutes later the lockdown was over. Everything went on as usual and Hojo went ahead with our normal daily routine. I felt that it was closer than I wanted it to be. It felt like that was not going to be the last of them and that it was going to be worse the next time.

**Author:**Kind of short, but it's really all I had time for and it doesn't really need to be long because of the next chapter. R&R please! My quarter is almost over so! I only have one week left. Next week everything is due and I just hope that I can get it printed in time!


	34. Attack on Shinra

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 34 Attack on Shinra

**"I'm watching a dream I'll never wake up from." - Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop)**

It has been two months and he still cannot come see me. He is actually on a mission with Zack. When that's over they can return to Midgar! That should be in a few days! I am still not allowed to do materia training. That is really annoying for me and it is slightly driving me crazy. Sephiroth keeps apologizing to me for that and he has yet to say anything about the present he never gave me. He wants it to be special, or so he says. I really do not care for things like that. Things seem to be going crazy all over the world.

Usher seemed to still be down about his wife. He says he searches on his off hours. It does not look as if he is really getting that much sleep. It just makes me sorry for him. He refuses to listen to anyone about it. "I can't give up." He says over and over.

After my training for the day Usher takes me back to the lab and before I know it I found myself lying on a table strapped down with Hojo standing over me. He was humming to himself and giving me a shot. I do not flinch or react to that. I have never heard him hum before so that creeps me out a little.

Whatever he gave me is having a weird affect on me. The colors in the room are different. Everything looks slightly off. There is also a red tint to everything. Things sound different as well. Everything sounds far away.

I hear a few booms. They are loud enough for me to recognize as bombs. They sound pretty close to me. I hear Hojo talking, but his voice is so muffled I cannot understand him. The aids unstrap me and pick me up. At the same time there is another boom. The world shakes in my vision and we all fall to the floor. I look up and see the elevator rising. _Is that the rebels? They move fast. _I think to myself. For some reason things seem to be happening a lot faster than they should be.

The elevator opens and people run out. Hojo is shouting and the aids pick me back up. I feel another prick in my arm and I look over seeing him giving me another shot of something. Everything goes black for a second and I feel myself fall, but the aids keep me standing. Then my vision returns, but everything looks dark and blood red. The people before me hesitate. _I wonder why they did that? _I look up directly at them and they freeze. I feel myself step forward even though I have not said to yet. My body is moving on its own.

Then I realize exactly what they have been looking at. I see something move beside me. The aids are no longer there supporting me. This black figure I realize looks a lot like me. It looks at me and I see the glowing eyes. _My shadow?_

It forms what looks like a smile and then slides forward fluidly. I have never seen it like this. It seems to be listening to me, but not me at the same time. I feel someone else controlling my body. Jenova is the first person that comes to mind, but how?

I watch as the rebels back away from my shadow. The light makes their shadows look long and seemingly reach towards me. When my shadow touches one of them it stops and holds a hand over it. The arm grows until it touches the floor and connects with his shadow.

He screams, but cannot move. I look at his shadow and realize that the hand is right over his heart. Somehow my shadow is reaching inside him. The rest of the rebels gape at him and one of them finally gets brave and makes a move.

He is carrying twin swords and he attacks my shadow trying to make it stop. This works in the fact that my shadow is distracted enough to lift its hand away. It then uses that like a spear trying to get him. He twists out of the way and leaps at it. He seems to forget that its arm is still behind him. The arm reaches around and runs him through the back. He freezes in mid air and screams. I watch this all the while screaming at myself to stop. I would never do something like this.

_Quiet! _A stronger voice shouts back. The voice is dark and full of hate. It almost hisses out the word. When I heard it I felt myself fall back mentally.

I recognize it as myself, but that cannot be true. I do not sound like that. "Who are you?" The voice laughs.

_I am you. _Y_our darker half._

That throws me back even further. I have now become the silent observer of myself.

My attention goes back to my shadow and the rebels. When they had first come in there were six of them. Now only two were left standing. Both of them were on the ground shaking and crying. I could faintly hear them begging for their lives. I am not sure if my shadow actually hears them or not, but it does not seem so. It comes forward and raises both arms towards them. They back away from it and find themselves against the wall. If my shadow could laugh I think it would have.

I tried to force myself to look away, but I could not. As long as my body looked so did I.

The arms plunged into their shadows and they screamed. Mentally I cringed, but I felt myself smile. Behind me I heard Hojo talking. It sounded as if he were happy. I turned around and noticed my shadow had moved beside me.

I looked at him and glared. Now that I could not see the bodies of the rebels I had more control over my body. I hated Hojo and right now I hated him even more. This was partially his fault anyway. My shadow moved in front of me and Hojo was motioning for the aids to take care of me. One of them carried a needle that I knew would put me to sleep.

They came forward and my shadow moved towards Hojo and reached out with its fingers to grab him by the throat. Just at it reached him the aids grabbed me and gave me the shot. It took affect almost instantly. I felt myself falter and them catching me. My shadow melted and I saw that Hojo had been afraid that they would not get to me in time.

When I woke up I had thought that all of that was just a dream. I dismissed it, but the images were so vivid to me. The bodies of the rebels lying on the floor bleeding from their hearts even though there was no wound was burned into my mind.

The way my shadow had smiled, the voice I had heard, the rebels screaming; all of those things I will never forget.

It took me a while to realize that I was not where I should be. I had expected to wake up in the chamber surrounded by the monsters I was so use to. It is pitch black wherever I am, or maybe I just cannot see. Somewhere in the room I hear water dripping.

A leaking faucet must be somewhere in this room. I also noticed that I was naked and the table is cold! I could hear footsteps coming towards me and I felt a hand moving from my leg up to my shoulder. I shivered and tried to get up, but this person was smart enough to strap me down beforehand.

"You are very interesting. Not quite what I was expecting. I can see why Hojo is so interested in you." A voice said. I recognized it almost instantly unable to forget. I struggled against my restraints wanting to get away. I pulled on them as hard as I could, but it was not use. "No use in trying to escape, you're not getting out of here."

**Author:** Who do you think took her?

Yay! My quarter is almost over! I'm going back to my dads so that means I will have a lot more time to write. It also means that the other story/s will be written on and one of them (probably the ff7 one that I mentioned before) will get submitted! That way you'll have something else to read. And maybe it will be able to keep you entertained. Like if I can't update one cause the ch. isn't ready you all will still have something to read!


	35. Alone in the dark

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

I do have a pic for this chapter! I actually drew it some time ago so the details in the pic are a little different than the chapter. She has a cut in the pic, but she has not actually been hurt physically.

Ch. 35 Alone in the Dark

_Genesis?!_ I struggled for a little while, but it was useless. He was right. I could not escape…not alone. "G?!" I struggled, but the straps held firm and he just stood there watching me. "What do you want?" I watched a devilish smile creep onto his face.

"What do I want?" He repeated. "No one has ever asked me that." He paused for a moment as if trying to think of the answer. "For now, I have what I want." He looked right into my eyes. For a moment I was paralyzed. The way his eyes looked at that moment frightened me. He looked so evil. "I have you here...and no one knows you're even gone yet." He said laughing. At the same time he made sure to touch me like before. I ignored it though. He did not seem particularly happy about that.

"But why?"

"Why?" He smirked and then smiled at me. "Because…." He said laughing. "Shinra made me and then threw me aside…so now I can return the favor with you. Besides, it will be fun to see how _he _will react to this." He said with a smile while fondling my breast. He laughed when I glared at him. "You're not the only thing I am working on though."

"He'll kill you for this!" I shouted at him.

"I doubt it!" He said still smiling. "He's strong, but not that strong." While he said that he grabbed a needle beside him. "I think that's enough…." He said. He got it ready and then gave me the shot. Almost immediately I felt tired. "Sleep tight." He said. It sounded creepy to me.

I woke up and all I could hear was this pounding in my ears. It was intense and I felt pain all over. I could faintly hear someone laughing nearby. I knew that it was G.

"Unh…." I tried to move somehow forgetting that I was strapped down. The movement hurt and I winced. Once again that hand came this time touching my face. He was so close that I could feel his breath. He was talking to me, but the words were lost. He laughed and his voice boomed. For some reason I could not open my eyes. I felt him grabbing my arm around my elbow. I struggled to open my eyes and for some reason that helped clear my head a little. I could hear a little better than before.

"This will hurt a lot." He said calmly. "You've never been exposed to unpurified mako I suppose." He laughed slightly. "Don't worry…it's not much. Don't want to kill you right away." He said laughing even more.

I barely opened my eyes and all I could see was his back. There was a tube coming from something above us and he was holding it in one hand. He took a moment to glance at me. By now what he had said finally registered. _Unpurified mako?_ I tried to say something, but I just could not manage to get anything out.

He was putting an I.V. in my arm. Then he went over to a computer and pushed some things. I did not really care. I felt horrible and I knew it was his fault. I knew that staying here could be a bad thing, but getting out might be too hard for me alone. I looked up and saw a bright green liquid flowing into the I.V. It looked like the mako that Hojo had used so I did not understand why he would have said that.

"You seem confused by this." He said noticing how I watched it. "This is mako before the reactors pick it up. It goes through several refining processes. Some for energy and some for materia. Hojo took the mako that was made after the first refining process. It's still pretty raw material, but nothing compared to this." He sounded excited to say all of that. He was proud of that knowledge and what he was doing.

As soon as it touched my skin I felt it burn. It really was not like what Hojo had put me in. This burned and it really was burning me. I could feel the tears coming and I was trying not to scream, but he could tell that I was in pain and he only looked pleased by it. All I could really do was struggle even though it was in vain. The straps held me tightly in place and no matter how hard I tried I could not break them. If I could I would rip that out and stick it in him!

He watched for a minute or two and then went back to the computer to stop it. "That's enough for now. You should get some rest." He said trying to sound concerned. "You'll be needing it." He said laughing. "We're going to have so much fun together!"

I watched him go and I could open my eyes more now, but everything looked too bright. That mako had a lot of side affects. The burning sensation was spreading. I could feel it in my chest and it was affecting my vision. After the burning stopped I started to feel cold. It was cold in there, but I felt colder than that. I started shivering. I could not help the urge to move. I could not sit still for anything. After a while I closed my eyes unable to stand how things looked. All I could do then was listen. There was always the constant dripping sound. I have not quite figured out where that is coming from.

I fell asleep after a while and woke up later when I heard the door open. I sat there waiting thinking that it would be him. "Lilia." It sounded like Angeal so I opened my eyes to make sure. It really was him. He looked very sad. "Are you ok?" I was not really sure how to answer. I shook my head mouthing out "NO!". "I'm sorry about that. There is little that I can do to help you right now." I just gave him a questioning look. I did not understand why he could not help me.

_Angeal? What's that suppose to mean? _Without meaning to I had actually said it to him. Doing that with Sephiroth had become second nature. He looked surprised when he heard it.

"So you can do that too. I can't…." He said. "I can't explain the reason, but trust me. Everything will be fine." He said smiling slightly. He patted my shoulder and I winced in pain. "Sorry." He turned around to find G walking in.

"There you are, Angeal. I need you to take care of something." He said taking his arm. On the way out he glanced over at me with an odd look in his eyes. To me it seemed weird that Angeal would allow him to do that. _Angeal? Are you helping him?_ I was not really sure if he had heard that or not. I was not sure what was going on, but I was shocked enough to see Angeal there in the first place.

No one came in for hours so I was left to sit in the dark. All I could do was try and feel around with my mind. I am not the only one here. There are a lot of other people here. Most of them are scared out of their minds thinking that they are going to die. I ran across someone that was familiar…or at least was thinking about someone I knew. It was Mirrin! She was afraid and she was worried about her family.

_Usher must be going crazy trying to find me. I hope they're all ok._

_Don't worry. They're fine. They miss you…._ I said to her. She seemed to be relieved by what I had said. On the other hand she was also debating how real that statement was. She could not believe that someone else had said that to her. She thought that she was starting to go crazy. I tried to explain it to her, but she would not believe it. I finally let her believe whatever she wanted.

I could not tell how many people were really there with us. There were so many that I eventually lost count. They were people from all over Gaia. There were some people from Wutai and they thought that this was something that Shinra was doing. They thought that this was some kind of top-secret thing. I guess you could say they were right. It is so top-secret that Shinra does not even know.

There were also other things there. They were monsters and some of them I am sure use to be human once. I know that Hojo was or is doing something like that. I am almost afraid to find out what G might be doing. It seems that I am in a very secluded place. I get a section all to myself. Guess that makes me special, but I do not feel that way.

I have noticed that I cannot reach Sephiroth. I wonder if he even knows that I am gone. I know that is something G is doing. I get the feeling that he does want Sephiroth to find me, but only on his terms. He has to know that Shinra is going to have them looking for me and also investigating all the missing soldiers.

**Author:** So now you get to see a little bit of what Genesis is doing.


	36. Mayhem in Shinra

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 36 Mayhem in Shinra

"What do you mean she's gone?!" Hojo shouted at Sheila and Siren. Siren looked down not really afraid of him and his wrath. She was thinking of someone else. She knew that in a few days Enshii would be sending another puppet to give her orders and if she had to tell him that the girl was gone Scythe would have her killed for sure. She shivered thinking about it. Hojo interpreted it as a fear of him and kept going.

Sheila, on the other hand, was kind of afraid of him right now. So far they were the only ones that knew. If anyone else found out they would be in hot water and when the president found out... She pushed that aside for the moment. She was worried about Lilia. If someone went to the trouble of kidnapping her then they were definitely up to no good. "Uh...Hojo, if you keep shouting at us like this everyone on this floor is going to know." She said shakily. Siren agreed with her she was ready for him to shut up.

Hojo paused and thought about what she had said. He knew that if he had the Turks look into this they would tell the president. He also knew that this little incident could cost him his research grant. There was also the matter of telling Sephiroth. He cringed thinking about it. _That boy really can get angry. When I or someone tells him someone is sure to be killed for it._ Hojo thought.

"Ok. Sheila, you come with me. You're the one who discovered that she was gone." He said sighing. "You're in charge here for now..." He said pointing at Siren. He did not care about what she did, but now he had to go to the president and give him the bad news. He would also have to start an investigation and tomorrow Sephiroth was coming back. He would want to see her and find out that she was gone. _If he doesn't already know._ He thought sourly.

They got into the elevator and found Reno and Rude on their way up as well. All of them had sour faces. All of them were reporting bad news to him. Reno and Rude were mad because they had been chosen to do this. No one else wanted the job and neither did they. They did notice how Hojo and Sheila looked a little nervous.

Once they were in his office they stood in a line waiting for him to acknowledge them. He looked up to find them all standing there none of them looking too happy. "Well, Hojo, what brings you here?" He said frowning. He had already gotten some pretty bad reports.

"Unfortunately it is nothing good. I'm afraid that a certain specimen has gone missing." He said frowning. He was expecting something bad to come from this.

"I see. So you've lost the girl have you?" He said raising an eyebrow.

"Yes." Both Reno and Rude were a little startled by that. It was more unexpected than they thought. They did not really know her, but they had seen her from time to time with Sephiroth or some other escort. The president noticed the woman beside him and had to question why she was there.

"And you...why are you here?" He said eyeing her.

"I'm always the first to see her. I bring her food and whatever else she needs." Sheila said feeling a bit nervous. She had never actually come up to the presidents office.

"I see. Is there anything odd that you noticed?" He knew that if she escaped there should be damage to the equipment and he guessed it would be the same if someone had taken her.

"The only strange thing is that there is no damage to anything. You need the card or a code to get in and out and only Hojo and I know the code." She said. She was glad to be somewhat useful right now.

"I see. That is odd." He looked over at Reno and Rude. "One of you should go and start the investigation on that. The other can give me your report." When they heard that they looked at each other both planning to leave the room. However, Reno got there first.

"Sir! I'll see to it that we find her." He said smiling and inching his way away from Rude. Then he turned on his heel and left rather quickly. Rude stood there frowning inwardly at his friend. _Figures that he would do that._

"You two may go." The president said to Hojo. They both nodded and left just as quickly as Reno had. They were actually glad to be out of that room. The look that they were getting from the president was enough to scare them. They got the impression that he was not going to forget this and that they were going to be punished later. Hopefully that later meant he would forget.

* * *

Sephiroth watched as his squad searched the area. This was definitely where the soldiers were last seen. He was standing next to Zack and they both knew that Angeal was suppose to be there with them, but he was also missing at the moment. He would have to report that to Shinra and he hoped that he had a good reason. _He had better have a good reason._ He thought.

Zack sighed. He was getting tired of wasting time here. They all knew that they were not going to find anything. _It's like they just vanished._ He was thinking. He decided to help look around just so things would go by faster. Sephiroth just watched. He was thinking about something else that was starting to bother him.

_Lilia? Can you hear me?_ He said reaching out to Midgar. They were by Corel at the moment near the reactor. It was bothering him that she would not answer. He was starting to get worried about her. He also knew that there was the possibility that she was simply sedated at the moment. He knew that that could last for several hours. He decided to wait so that he could surprise her when he returned. He knew that she would be happy to see him. He would definitely be happy to see her.

Zack noticed the odd way he was acting, but there was no way Sephiroth was going to tell him about that. Sephiroth talked about her, but he had not mentioned that they talked mentally all the time. "Something wrong, Sephiroth?" He just shook his head no. He was not sure so he was not going to worry him with it. At least, not until he was sure there really was something to worry about.

"I wonder where Angeal is?" Zack said. He was starting to wonder about that. They were friends and he hoped that it was nothing bad.

"I don't know. He'll get it for missing the mission. I have to report this." Sephiroth said.

"Somehow I don't think he cares." Zack replied. "Well, it looks like this place is clean. We should go...I bet you can't wait to get back to Midgar." He said smiling at Sephiroth a little. He understood where he was going with that.

"She'll be surprised." Sephiroth said. He still had an uneasy feeling that he could not shake. He was starting to worry.

* * *

At Shinra they were finally starting to interrogate the rebels that had survived. Most of them had been killed or had killed themselves. At the moment they were trying to find out if they knew about her and if they were somehow responsible for her disappearance. That was turning up nothing. None of them had even cared about what they were doing in the lab. They did think it was bad and inhumane, but as far as they were concerned everyone in that building was suppose to die. Lilia had put a damper on that for one group by killing them. The Turks had taken care of the rest along with the soldiers that were stationed there.

Hojo had watched a few of the interrogations and some he had even participated in. He was good at giving people pain and that was his job. Torture techniques to get them to talk did little to improve the information. The only thing they learned is that there was someone there that was not with them. This person was wearing a soldier uniform or something resembling it. All of the rebels had confirmed that. Each group said that someone had been seen on the sixty-seventh floor by one group and they had seen him leaving with something...or possibly someone...over his shoulder.

"That means that someone in Shinra did this." Hojo said mostly to himself. He was sure that it was true. He got the feeling that somehow Hollander was involved in this. He was reporting this to the president. He did not look pleased to learn this.

"Do you think this has something to do with the rebels or something else?" He asked him.

"I think they used the rebel attack as cover. I think this has to do with the missing files." Hojo said. He was so sure about this. He knew it had to be right. They had been working all day and night and he was dreading what would happen that afternoon.

"I see. Hopefully she will be found and this will be resolved quietly." The president said dismissing him. Now that he was done talking to him he had a new problem. Sephiroth would be back that afternoon and he had to tell him the bad news. He was not looking forward to that at all. He knew Sephiroth well and his reaction would more than likely be violent. He had already advised Siren that she should be ready with a tranquilizer just in case. The only thing that really puzzled him about her disappearance is that they knew about the camera. There was no indication that anyone had been in there all night. They had taken the time to tamper with it. He sighed and went to wait.

* * *

Sephiroth and Zack arrived at the building around five o'clock. Both of them were actually glad to be back. "There's nothing like being back...no matter how much this place stinks." Zack said. He was glad that their punishment was over. Lilia was his friend and he had missed talking to her. Sephiroth was happy to be back, but he did not really show it. On the inside he was ecstatic. The only real visible sign that he was happy was a small smile.

They headed over to the elevator and after looking around they could tell that something had happened. "It looks like there was an attack." Sephiroth stated. Zack nodded agreeing with him. It gave him a bad feeling. Sephiroth did not really care as long as Lilia was ok.

They made it to the chamber, but found it empty. "Maybe she's in the lab right now?" Zack said looking at the elevator. Sephiroth was not so sure. He could not sense her at all.

"Something is wrong." He said with conviction. They went up to the lab and found Hojo and his assistants all standing around the computer. "Hojo!" Sephiroth said. He noticed that he jumped when he heard his voice. "Where is Lilia?"

Hojo turned around and sighed. "I don't know." He said as calmly as he could. "We think she was taken during the rebel attack." He finished. He could see the hatred and anger flare up in his eyes. It was a little frightening even for him.

"I see." He replied looking at the floor. _So that is why she never answered me._ He felt so sad and angry. All he wanted to do was kill someone. Hojo was right in front of him and it would be so simple to just reach out and grab him by the throat. He clenched his fists and started shaking. The want and urge to kill was getting stronger and Jenova was feeding off of it. She told him to do it. She was almost begging for him to do it. It was a plea that he did not resist.

Hojo knew that he was getting to that point. He motioned for the aids to be ready. Zack just stood there wondering who would take her and why. He was also wondering what Sephiroth was going to do. He got the feeling that he was going to hurt someone and he was not about to try and stop him. Especially if he decided to take out Hojo. This was his fault after all. They never had anyone guarding her.

"Hojo." Sephiroth said through clenched teeth. He sounded angry and he was reaching for him. Hojo backed away, but there was no way that Sephiroth was going to let him get away. He grabbed him by the throat and squeezed. Hojo grabbed at his hands and gasped for air.

"Stop, boy!" He said gasping. Sephiroth gave no sign that he had heard him. Hojo frantically looked around for someone. _They should have taken care of him already!_ He thought frantically.

Siren took a few moments to watch enjoying the violence. She also knew that once he was done with him he would more than likely move on to someone else. She sighed and readied the needle. She did not want him to notice her. That was unlikely though. In his current state he could only see his prey. She was glad that he was hunched over enough for her to reach his neck. She gave him the shot as quickly as she could and then backed away.

Zack had stood there and watched unsure about what to do. He did not want to get in the way for fear that Sephiroth might turn on him at any moment. He watched as Siren took care of the matter. After a few seconds Sephiroth loosened his grip on him and slumped to the floor. Hojo stood there trying to gather himself. He took several deep breaths before telling them to put him on the table. Zack helped them and then decided to stay and wait for him to wake up. He hoped that he would be in a better mood by then.

A few hours later...

Sephiroth woke up with a start. He saw that Zack was the only one in the lab now. "How long was I out?" He asked.

"Just a few hours. I'm sorry about Lilia. I'm sure we'll find her." He said. Sephiroth sighed and looked away. She was gone and he felt lost. Jenova was already stepping in to comfort him. He got little solace there though. He had loved her deeply and now she was gone. He was not sure if he would ever see her again. It was almost enough to make him cry. He got up and went to the elevator. He was going to have a look around the chamber for himself. He wanted to know how they managed to get her out. He had not noticed anything wrong before. He knew there had to be something that they forgot.

**Author: **Well, now everyone knows and so the search begins. Things just don't seem to go right for them...


	37. In the days that followed

-1Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 37 In the days that followed

**Part 1:** Feelings

Sephiroth searched the room relentlessly. At the same time he was reaching out to anywhere he could think of to find her. He only got a few things that seemed relevant, but all he could really do was file them away for later. It was the fifth time that he had searched it. He felt so lost and frustrated and Jenova enjoyed every bit of it. For once, Lilia was not there to stop her. She was going to take full advantage of this and stretch her legs. All day long she had been telling him that he really should get over it.

_Come now my son. She's gone. You must let go of her..._ Jenova said happily. For the first time Sephiroth truly detested her. Her words only angered him.

_Shut up, mother! I won't._ He said pausing for a moment to gather himself. She was becoming too frustrating for him. Her voice dominated his mind and made it difficult for him to search the room. He was not even sure what he was looking for, but so far there was nothing. He looked at the camera for a moment. _I already know that there isn't anything on there. Whoever did this was smart._

_It would have been better if they left her here dead._ Jenova said. Sephiroth ignored her comment. He knew that she was glad Lilia was gone and she would probably be happy never to see her ever again. He knew that he could not let that happen.

_I will find her mother. No matter what._ He said making sure that she understood what he meant. She got quiet and backed away for a while letting him search. When he could not find anything he found himself looking around her bed. He did notice that her cover was gone. _I guess they took that as well... How considerate. _He thought hating them. He sat down on her bed and sighed. He found himself looking under her bed. He knew that she had a little hiding place for her drawing and such. It was the only thing he had of her at the moment.

He looked through them all. He found himself smiling every once in a while. Something she drew or wrote made him miss her, but it also made him laugh. After a while he was finished looking through her drawings and he just sat on her bed. He felt something he had never felt before. A tear ran down his cheek and he did not even bother to wipe it away. It was perfect for how he felt now. It was only one tear. Something he had never done before.

"Strange...I didn't know I could cry."

* * *

Zack wandered around the building gathering some information on the attack. Since they were not there he wanted to know as much as he could. He wanted to help his friends in any way possible. For now, this was all he could do. He was kind of disappointed by what he was hearing. None of it was very helpful. It was so chaotic when it happened no one really remembers what happened exactly. He found it hard to take anyone by their word. He really wanted to ask the Turks about it, but he knew that they would not give him a straight answer even if it was for Sephiroth.

He spent hours wandering around the building trying to get anything he could out of everyone and got nothing of real interest. He got to hear plenty of gossip he did not care about one bit. Some of it was about Sephiroth like always, some about the attack, disappearances, the president, etc. He found it annoying and a waste of time, but he listened hoping maybe there would be something useful in it all. There was not so he moved on and ended up going back up to the sixty-seventh floor to see how Sephiroth was doing.

Zack knew what Sephiroth was probably doing now. He had not left that room the whole day. He figured that he was still searching it now. He had never seen him act this way. He was always so detached and he did know that she made him happy. He wondered what he would be like without ever meeting her. He would never act like this. It gave him more of a reason to help him. He had to find her or Sephiroth would be miserable forever.

He barely got through the door when he noticed what he was doing. He was sitting on her bed...crying. It made Zack stand there in near shock. He had never seen that before and thought he never would. _He's actually crying. I guess only she could do that to him._ He thought. It meant a lot from his standpoint. It proved just how much he really did love her.

"Zack...did you find anything?" He jumped when he heard him speak to him. All he could do was shake his head. Sephiroth had only looked up for a second and made no effort to hide the tear from him. He figured that he would not want anyone to see that. It just added to his conviction to help them.

"We'll find her I swear." Zack said sitting down on his bed. Sephiroth looked up and smiled ever so slightly.

"Thanks." He was a little surprised at how convicted Zack was about this. His friends in general surprised him. He did not really know he had such a good friend to depend on. Something like that was beyond him.

**Part 2:** Fear and loathing

Siren slowly made her way to the top of the building. She was dreading it. She had snuck around for the past few days trying to get something on the girl. They were staying quiet about the whole thing. No one was even suppose to know that she was missing except those in the investigation and they certainly were not talking.

She was getting worried and annoyed with all of this. She knew that she was going to be in serious trouble with Scythe and she could not lie to them...or rather _him_. If she did there would be even worse consequences. She shivered knowing what he might do.

When she reached the top she paused almost afraid to go out to the roof. She looked around almost wanting someone to find her here. She was dreading seeing Enshii's little puppet. She sighed heavily and then straightened herself up and walked calmly outside. The puppet was waiting. He stood in the shadows and then came out when he saw her. On the other side Enshii could see everything. He knew that something was different about her today. He could almost smell her fear.

Without hesitation the puppet handed her the familiar note and waited for her to say something. She read over it and then knew that she had to tell him the truth. If she did not do it now it would only make things much...much worse. The letter from Scythe told her it was almost time and that she should get ready. She knew that there was a huge problem with that.

"There is a small problem." She said. Enshii heard her however faint she did sound. It got his quick attention. The puppet could not talk, but it did allow him to hear when he put forth the effort. Most of the time it did not matter. He was expecting something different out of her. She complained a lot to him about Gaia and having to stay there. She wanted to leave and everyone in their group knew that. Scythe was the only thing keeping her there.

"The girl has gone missing." She said. She was not one to investigate and each letter told her to keep up appearances. She could not give herself away. If she did it would make getting the girl very difficult. Enshii frowned and had to show it through the puppet somehow. It crossed its arms and tapped its foot. It was all he could do to show his irritation. "There is little I can do about it. I have no doubt that they'll find her though. Sephiroth won't give up." She said.

She had told them a lot about their relationship making sure that they understood the kind of problem it could make. The fact that she was missing now might mean a huge problem when they actually do find her. Siren was not exactly the strong one. She did know things about him that no one else did. He only hoped that would be enough for her to get the girl and he would have someone watching her to make sure it did happen. They really could not afford to lose her. She was too important and they honestly had no idea how important. Only Scythe knew her real purpose. Him and The Abyss.

He made the puppet take back the letter so he could tell her something. He hated having to do it this way. They had terrible handwriting. He wanted her to know he had to tell them. That she should just do as told and keep them informed. He hoped that Scythe would act as calm as he was now. She sighed after reading his response and then nodded. She went back inside knowing that this was not over yet.

The puppet returned and Enshii patted him on the head. _So loyal. Now...to tell him._ He thought with a hidden smile. He went back to Scythe and stood beside him waiting for him to acknowledge him. It was the customary thing to do since he gave the orders. They all served him with a hint of fear in it.

"Enshii, tell me...what did she report?" Scythe said without looking at him.

"There has been an incident and she lost her...or I should say they all did." Enshii said calmly. He knew that the anger would not be directed at him.

"Yes. I know." He was surprised.

"You do? So what do we do about it." Enshii inquired. He was curious. What was their fearless leader up to now. Something like this should have been a huge problem for them, but he was not worried.

"Nothing. We wait. After they find her...Siren will bring her here. Although that might be a little hard for her to do on her own." He said. "She may need help to wrench her from that man...Sephiroth was it?" Enshii nodded. "He is our only obstacle." He said starring into The Abyss.

Enshii just nodded and then went on his way. He knew better than to question Scythe. The only one brave enough...or stupid enough to do that was Simon. He was a scientist and Scythe merely indulged him, but only a little. "What did he say?" Glaed asked. She wanted to know what their next move was going to be. They had been sitting around doing nothing and she was smarter than to mention it.

"We wait." He said without stopping. She stomped her foot and cursed. She just looked in Scythes direction and glared, but that was all she dared to do. He had freed her and he could just as well imprison her again. She would not risk that. She sat down to sulk for a while until her anger went away. It was the only thing she could do at the moment.

**Part 3:** A helping hand

Usher found himself in his office earlier than usual. He was actually looking forward to seeing Lilia today. It was really the only good thing he could think of at the moment. It made him feel useful. He was helping her. He starred at his wife's picture. She was holding their children. It was driving him crazy that she was not there anymore. He looked up when the door opened expecting to see Lilia, but Sephiroth was standing there alone.

"Where's Lilia?" He asked. He could see the hurt and loss in his eyes. It was something he knew very well.

"I see. So she has gone missing I take it." He said. Sephiroth nodded.

"She went missing during the rebel attack. You didn't know?" Usher shook his head. He had been so busy helping them clean up that mess he had not heard anything.

"She told me that...you've had a similar experience." He said sitting down. He noticed that plethora of family pictures. His wife was in every one. Usher nodded. He was a little unsure what to do or what to say. "You've been searching on your own. I know that. Tell me. What have you found?" Sephiroth said. He could have just as easily read his mind, but at the moment he was too distracted.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." He said feeling angry. "I looked everywhere. Mirrin disappeared when she went to the store. I don't see how this helps you find Lilia."

"No one else here understands what it feels like." He whispered. "You're the only one here that really understands." Usher nodded understanding completely.

"I can't help Mirrin." Usher whispered. He knew that no matter how hard he looked he would never find her alive. He knew that was true. Sephiroth knew he was thinking that. It was something he did not want to believe about Lilia.

"You really believe that don't you. They're both alive. I'm sure of that." Sephiroth said very confidently. It was the only thing he knew for sure. Usher found it hard to believe him, but he did. He could see in his eyes that Sephiroth believed it too.

"So what do we do? You think we'll find them together?" Usher asked. He did not see how the two incidents could be connected other than they both disappeared.

"The rebel attack covered up who took her; that is a fact. Someone took her just like they took your wife. They are connected." Sephiroth said.

"Has anyone else made that connection?" Usher had to ask. He wondered if anyone else had thought of that, but why take her if they already had all those other people?

"You're a good tracker. The best. Help me find out who did this to them." Sephiroth said. On the inside he was pleading for his help, but he could not do that in reality. He knew he would agree to help. Usher was a good man and helping him meant helping his wife and maybe many others as well. A lot of people had gone missing and they both felt that it they would not be the last.

"Alright. I'll help, but even I haven't been able to find any evidence. The scenes are clean. It's as if no one was ever there." He said remembering it. He knew the exact place his wife disappeared and he could do the same for anyone else. There was no evidence that they were taken by someone. They were just gone.

"Maybe that is how we should see it. Whoever took them didn't physically walk off with them, but in Lilia's case that is what happened. Witnesses saw someone go into her room and leave with something over their shoulder and they were in Soldier."

"No one I know would dare do that!" Usher said slamming his hands on the desk. He just could not believe that someone he trained would do something like that. "Shinra does some bad things, but the soldiers are loyal to the end. They'd never kidnap someone...especially not her. They had more respect for her and you than that." He said. He could hardly look him in the eye at the moment. All of this was a little much for him to believe.

"Maybe they aren't in Soldier anymore, or possibly never were. Some Soldiers have gone missing. They could be impersonating someone. The fact that it was dark would make it impossible to actually identify them." Sephiroth said. Usher knew that could be true. He could not believe that any soldier would stoop that low.

"I don't know." Usher said thinking. He wanted to have a look around the chamber for himself before dismissing anything though. If he did not do that what kind of tracker would he be. "I think I'll have a look around her room."

**Author:** Ok so now we see how things have started to progress in the search for her. With Usher helping now things should go along a little faster. He is the best!

Siren is not in trouble cause Scythe decided to look ahead and find out what was going on on Gaia. Otherwise, she might have gotten punished. They've waited quite a while and even he is starting to get bored and tired of waiting. He knows that he has to be patient.

Also...I may be starting a new story next week when my school starts back up. I'm still trying to work out the beginning. If I don't start it then...then I'll start it some time later. I don't expect that one to be a very long story right now. Definitely not as long as this one anyway.


	38. Scream for me!

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

**Warning!** This chapter is not for the feint of heart. If you don't like blood you're out of luck.

Ch. 38 Scream for Me!

For a few days things went by pretty fast. I slept a lot and I only did that because I was bored all of the time. Genesis only stayed for about an hour each time and I slept the rest of the time. After the first day I knew the place pretty well. I guess that I was hoping it would be helpful later on...when I somehow got out of here.

I only knew the time thanks to G. He always came in at the same times every day. Every once in a while he would make a log. That told me what day it was. According to that I have been here for a month. So far the only thing I hate is the mako he uses. I do not get mako baths I just get it intravenously. I have a burn mark on my arm from it and it is starting to look really gross. I think even he is starting to think that as well, or maybe there is another reason.

I woke up one day to find him cleaning it up. He actually put it in the other arm because of that. I was glad and unhappy with that at the same time. It was starting to really hurt that arm.

Everyday I talk to someone here hoping they will not completely think that they are crazy and hearing voices. Someone in here has to think that there is the possibility that someone else is actually talking to them. So far that has done little. They still think they are crazy. _Maybe I should count myself among them?_ _I am talking to crazy people...somewhat._

Today Genesis declared that he had something special for me. "I've planned something special. I've noticed that there are certain things you refuse to do." He said pulling over a small table. "This will be painful and slow." He said smiling at me. _Hopefully..._I heard him say in my head. Lately he has been letting me hear what he was thinking. He looked at the table and picked up a few items. All of it surgical equipment used to cut, slice, and examine. I looked at it nervously. I had an idea of what he might be doing with all of that stuff.

He started by picking up the scalpel. He did not put gloves on or wash his hands. The scalpel did not even look sharp. "Now. Where should I start?" He said looking me over. He moved the table beside him so he could stand closer to me. "I think I'll start with your arm and go from there." He said smiling. He had this gleam in his eyes. He was very excited about this and he was going to enjoy it.

He put it on my skin and held it there for a moment. Then he slowly pushed down on it letting it cut me. Once he could see some blood he cut up my arm until he got to my elbow. Since is was dull it took longer than it should and it did not cut right. It was a jagged cut that curved up my arm and I felt every bit of it. I watched cringing the whole time, but towards the end I had to close my eyes.

I clenched my teeth and took it knowing exactly what he wanted. Pain did feel different to me and he was going to have to do a lot more than that to make me scream. He looked at me and saw the tears in my eyes. He wiped them away with a bloody hand and left a streak of blood on my cheek. That was worse than him cutting me. I tried to jerk away from him.

He smiled and made some more cuts on my arm before putting the scalpel down. My arm was a bloody mess and I could feel him reaching underneath my skin. He started pulling it up and peeling it open. That made me jerk, but it only made it worse. I whimpered at the pain and cried a little more, but there was no scream. Hojo had put me through some painful things, but I must say that this is much much worse.

"Hm. I guess you need more than that." He said. He grabbed the scalpel again and moved over to my chest. He stared at me for a moment without moving or saying a word. "I almost don't want to do it, but then again...I really do." He said evilly. He smiled and leaned in close so I could feel his breath. His eyes narrowed and then he grabbed my right breast with one hand. He held the scalpel in the other and moved it around looking for the right place to cut. When he did he almost stabbed me with the scalpel before making a cut.

He had the right idea. I was more sensitive there and it did hurt more. I groaned loudly trying not to let out a scream. I could not give in. There was no way that I was going to make him happy by doing that. _I won't let him have the satisfaction._ No matter how hard I tried I could not stop myself from struggling a little. I closed my eyes for a moment. He had moved on to my other breast cutting in the same place as the other. I knew that he was smiling. He was the type of person to enjoy this kind of thing.

My eyes jerked open when I felt his lips on my stomach. I gasped when I felt that. He was just trying to get my attention. He wanted me to pay attention to everything he was going to do and he made it clear that he was not even close to being done.

He ran his hands along my stomach making sure to smear my blood around. He had this strange light in his eyes. He was enjoying this far more than I thought. It was a scary look and I wanted to run away. He had stopped completely for a few moments and was just starring, but I knew that he was thinking. Maybe planning what he was going to do next or maybe he was changing his mind. I watched a strange smile creep onto this face. I knew it could not mean anything good.

"It has just occurred to me..." He said softly.

_ Now what?_

"You're a virgin, correct?" I just looked at him confused for a moment.

_What do you want? _

He laughed aloud for a moment. "I'm surprised that he never had you." He said. I knew what he meant. "He seems the type for that sort of thing, but I guess you aren't." He said finally looking at me.

"Hurry up and say it..." I said looking away. He laughed again. He chose not to actually say anything at that moment. He put his hand on my leg for a moment and then started to adjust my restraints. It was a little confusing for me since I could move a little more now. It meant I could try to hurt him if he got too close. He paused to look me over for a moment.

"You really are a pretty little thing." He said. He moved up and put his arms around my neck. "I can see why he loves you." He said. He leaned forward and kissed me. He made it so that I could not look away from him. I held my mouth shut until he finished. "I think...he should have taken you." He had maneuvered himself so that he was laying on top of me.

It was enough to remind me of that day so many years ago. I could still remember how I had felt. How scared I was. Sephiroth had been there to help me, but he was not here and he was not going to save me...not this time. I felt all of those feelings returning. I was starting to feel afraid.

"Are you scared?" He said smiling.

I was shaking and I could not say anything. There was one key difference between the memory and now. I was hardly scared of those first class soldiers. They made me feel angry, but G is totally different. He knows how to hurt and scare me since he can get into my head.

I felt his hands exploring me and I felt him kissing my neck. I could not really move so all I could do was cry. I heard him laughing. "Don't worry. It'll get so much better." He said. He sat up and smiled before he started to undo his pants. He looked very determined and he did it slow. I knew what was coming and I could not help but shake and cry. _What should I do? How do I stop this?_ I thought frantically.

"Stop!" I screamed at him. He froze and smiled even more.

"What was that?" He said leaning forward.

"Stop." I said crying.

"Now, was that really so hard?" He said slowly getting off of me. "That is all I wanted. A simple little scream." He said after he finished zipping up his pants. Then he turned on the water to wash his hands. It suddenly occurred to me that he had never even intended to go any further than what he did. He knew how I would react. He was counting on it.

"G?! What the hell are you doing?" It was Angeal. Genesis paused for a moment to look at him and then calmly continued to wash his hands. "What have you done to her? This is not what we agreed on." He said angrily. He picked up my arm and looked at it cringing. Genesis just glared at him. He did not say a word and then left the room abruptly. I was glad that he did. I was ready for him to be gone. "Lilia, I'm sorry this happened." He said looking shocked. I just shook my head.

"It's not your fault." I whispered. That seemed to make things worse. He backed away from me slowly.

"It is my fault." He said before leaving. I watched him go wondering what he had meant by that. It did not take long for me to forget what he had said. I was losing blood and it was starting to get hard to think. After a few minutes I was out and dreaming horrible nightmares.

**Author:**Well, this chapter was painful to write in so many ways and I don't think there will be another one quite like this. It hurts me to write...especially since it is technically suppose to be me here. G got what he wanted, but now we see how Angeal feels about it. Maybe it'll change his mind about G and maybe Lilia will get some help from him...maybe...


	39. Sins

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 39 Sins

"There is something that I need you to do. You and I want similar things. Shinra is a problem. They created us...and him and want to create an army like him. If that happens no one will be able to stop them." Genesis said. _And my plans will be delayed. _Angeal knew that he was probably right. He was curious as to how he knew this was fact.

"How do you know this?"

"Hollander took some files from Hojo. I looked over them wondering if they could be of any use to us. I found them enlightening." Genesis said.

"What do you want of me?"

"Lilia. Go and get her. Without her Hojo's work will be meaningless. He's only a half-baked scientist anyway. He can't make it work. Why don't we end it completely?" He said smiling.

"What about Sephiroth?" Angeal said. If they took her without him knowing there could be terrible consequences.

"He is still away from Midgar and he won't find out as long as you are careful. Take this." He said handing him a card. "It will get you in and out of the chamber she is kept in." He said. Angeal hesitated before taking it. "Think of it this way. You'll be helping her."

"I need to know. Why do you want her? I know there is another reason."

"I simply want to explore some of the things that Hojo found. Nothing destructive I assure you." He said looking innocent. Angeal sighed finding almost no room for argument. "The rebels will be attacking the building tonight. Use that as cover. I've taken care of the camera in the room. I will monitor things from here." G finished. He looked at the card and then left heading up to the building.

A few hours later...

When Angeal arrived he knew exactly where he was suppose to be. He had gotten orders to go on a mission with Sephiroth and Zack. It was the first time they would have been all together again since the incident with Lilia. Angeal found that he had a lot of time to think before he could do anything. The rebels would, of course, wait until dark to attack. He had had enough time to contemplate his actions. He was not entirely sure how things would go once the attack began.

He was a little unsure about taking her at all. He knew that once he did and she was in deepground he would make Genesis understand that no harm was to come to her or he would take her to Sephiroth. For a few minutes he thought that was a better idea, but he was in Corel at the moment. It would be difficult to get her there without being seen.

_I guess that option is out of the question...unless necessary._ A few minutes later he heard the first explosion. "Finally." He waited a few more minutes to give them time to get ahead of him. That way they would be focused on them and ignore him if he were seen. Most of the lights were out at the moment so that would make it more difficult to identify him in the first place.

It took less time for him to get there than he had thought. He had gone up the stairs not trusting the elevators. In times like this they were shut off so no one could use them to escape. It was a precaution that Shinra took. No one included employees. They were trained to fend for themselves. If something happened they could hide, fight, or flee down the stairs. He noticed the lack of people coming his way. They had not decided to flee.

Once on the right floor he found it very silent. He did see a few rebels and he guessed that they were there to cover their friends backs. He ignored them and made sure that they understood he was not going to do anything to them. He saw them get ready for a fight, but they did not come after him. He simply went in the room and found her lying on the bed asleep. He looked at the wall knowing there was a camera there. Sephiroth had told him about it. He had been angry to learn of it and had to vent his anger somehow. At the time he was just glad that it was not in a violent manner.

He went over to the chamber and pulled out the card. He hesitated once again before using it. A part of him felt that this was wrong, but he had his own reason for accepting it. He could not leave her in here. He could not leave her to the fate he had had in here. He went in and knew that she had been sedated. He was glad for that. This way she would not know that he had done this. He got the feeling that she would not be happy with it.

He put the cover over her and then hoisted her over his shoulder. "Forgive me for this." He said to her and Sephiroth.

* * *

Angeal wandered around deepground for a while wondering what to do. Genesis had already betrayed his word. He had promised not to hurt her like that. He was only going to examine her, but Angeal knew that he could never control what he did. He was becoming a problem and he was starting to see that his mind was set on something more than getting rid of Shinra. He had some other agenda. 

They had already fought over what G had just done to her.

* * *

Angeal followed G after leaving the room still angry over what he had just seen. "Genesis! Stop." He said. "You agreed that she would not be harmed." He said angrily. 

"Tomorrow she'll be in perfect health. The mako will heal all of her wounds and it will be as if nothing had ever happened." He said calmly without missing a step. Angeal could not believe what he was hearing.

"Maybe so...the fact is...it happened...and I won't forget it." Angeal said angrily. He turned away frustrated and sighed. He was so angry at the moment he could hardly see straight.

"Don't worry, Angeal, I would never let her die." G said before leaving. After a few minutes Angeal went back in to bandage her up. At the very least, he could keep her from losing anymore blood.

* * *

Angeal could not get those images out of his mind. She was his friend and so was Sephiroth. However, he knew that neither of them would be so forgiving if they knew what he had done. He had betrayed them both and he was afraid to tell them. _Lilia might be more understanding._ He thought. Somehow he knew that she would. Sephiroth was different. He was not one to forgive. He knew that it was something he grew up with. He would not forgive the things that had happened to him. In a way Angeal felt the same. All three of them had been experiments and almost no one had really cared about them. 

To everyone they were just things to be used and once they were no longer needed they were simply discarded. _Hollander...father had been different._ He thought. He did remember the horror on his face when he found them. He also remembered the look on Hojo's face when he saw that him and G had both gotten into Soldier. He had been very surprised.

He pushed all of those thoughts aside. He had more important things to think about. He had to decide what to do about Genesis. He was starting to get out of control. Angeal knew that he had to do something about that. _If I don't do something he'll end up killing her...and for what?_ He just could not understand why Genesis would go through all of that. Why would he hurt her? _What does he get out of doing that to her?_

Angeal paced back and forth for hours thinking about what to do. Genesis found him like that. He was still angry and on the inside so was G. G knew that Angeal was thinking about betraying him as well. _It seems everyone I know makes a habit of doing that._ He thought before confronting Angeal.

"Angeal, I've been looking for you." He said. He leaned against the wall and waited for Angeal to stop pacing before saying anything else. "Her wounds have healed. She's good as new...maybe even better."

"Why did you do it?" Angeal asked. It was a fair question he thought.

"I suppose there is a part of me that enjoyed doing it. I suppose that is merely something that is a part of us all." He said shrugging. "We are monsters, Angeal. You...me...him...and her. All of us share it. Some more than others." G said solemnly. Angeal knew that there was some truth in what he said. He knew that he was just trying to get him back on his side. It was his strong point. He was too persuasive.

"I know what you are trying to do, G. I cannot forgive this." Angeal said defiantly. He was not going to give in, but he knew that he had to be careful. G could be dangerous.

"I don't blame you. I did promise." G said looking away. "I'm afraid there is nothing I can do to erase it. You'll just have to forgive me." He said looking back at him slightly.

"Can you honestly promise me that it won't happen again? I don't think you can and I find it very hard to trust your word. You have not given me much reason to trust you as of late." Angeal said. G took it in stride.

"If you want...you can go and tell them where we are. Then Shinra will send in some soldiers to raid this place and she will once again be in their clutches. She will be nothing more than a tool for them...like we were." He said slowly walking towards him. "I won't stop you if you decide to do that." He said. The whole time he had maintained a calm and innocent look with only a hint of malice. His thoughts were far from that. He knew that Angeal would not go now. He would wait and that was perfectly fine with him. There were still things that Angeal wanted to do here. He also knew that this incident would make Angeal less trusting of him. He would definitely check up on him and the girl. That was fine too. If he wanted a reason to betray him he was going to give him one.

"No...I won't do that, but I will make sure that you never do that to her again." He said quietly. G turned away satisfied. He would have more time with her and it would give him more time to work on his other project. He still did not have enough people here and many of the ones he did have were not soldiers. They were only prototypes for what he really wanted to do with them. It was an idea that he had gotten from Hojo. Some of the files Hollander had taken had contained some interesting ideas. They were things that Hojo had abandoned for the moment because the Soldier program was far more important to Shinra right now.

Angeal paced once again feeling frustrated. He had felt the threat behind what he had said. He knew that G did want him to tell them eventually, but not right now. It was not the most opportune time. For now, he would just make sure that she was not hurt until then.

**Author:** Well...now you know exactly who took her. G talked him into it and he agreed wanting to help her somehow. Unfortunately G stepped over the line and he is starting to think twice about trusting him. G's smart and knows exactly what to do about it though. Eventually, there is going to be a last straw for him.


	40. Searching on both sides

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 40 Searching on both sides

**Part 1: **The numbers roll on

Usher had checked and checked that room several times and still came up with nothing. After the first time there just was not anything left to find. So he gave up on that avenue. There had to be other things that could lead them to her whereabouts. Sephiroth did not do that. He had not left the building since he arrived and spent all the time looking and hardly getting any sleep. He felt that if he ever stropped searching for her that it would only make things worse for her. He wanted to find her alive at any cost. He was frantic enough already.

He sat on her bed and stared blankly for a moment. It was just a moment, but enough to calm himself. He felt so angry that it was taking so long and to him it seemed like a lifetime already. He sighed and leaned against the glass like he always did. The whole time he sat there clenching his fists. It was the only thing he did not attempt to stop. It was better than feeling frustrated all the time.

Jenova still persisted that he should let her go. He knew that right now he could never do that. It had not been that long. She wanted him to forget and leave it along, but it was a little too soon. She was starting to realize that she needed to wait. It was too soon for him to give up and she knew that. She also knew that he could hold onto something for a long time. This was definitely one of those things. Sephiroth was starting to feel very annoyed by her. He was pushing her further and further away simply because of that. That was another thing she did not like.

_That girl rubbed off on him far too much. This might take a while to undo...he was perfect..._She thought to herself. It was a problem and the girl had been useful, but even her connection to her was somewhat severed. Every once in a while she found herself able to get something, but it was not much. A small flicker of pain here and there that she reveled in. That also meant that all of the knowledge she held was gone unless they found her. Jenova found herself wondering if she wanted them to find her or not. She had only managed to get what she considered a small portion of what she knew and even she was not sure it was all fact, but she could see that a lot of it was true...so far.

She could easily see some of it happening on its own, but she wanted to make sure that certain things involving Sephiroth did happen. Even from what she saw in Lilia's mind was not a lot to go by. You do not really see the story from all sides and in many ways she knew she would have to guess at what really happened until it arrived. In a small way she did want all of the information Lilia had, but not if it meant losing Sephiroth. She had more influence over him than she knew and now Jenova found herself being tossed aside for her. It was a little annoying for her.

_One day I will get her. She will die._

* * *

Usher went home for the thousandth time and had to face his two children without her. Once again his search had turned up nothing. He did know that Lilia was taken by someone physically. His wife and the number of others had disappeared in a different way. He could not understand it. Someone had to be nearby in order for anything to happen unless it was some kind of long-range spell. He really did not know of one that could do this so effectively without leaving a trace behind. 

There had been times when something was left behind, but even then it was hard to tell what had happened. He had gone over the site so many times and he had searched elsewhere just to see if there was anything. A hint maybe that someone was there. He was starting wonder if there really was something to find there. Maybe it was the absence of evidence that was the key. There was the possibility that Shinra was involved knowingly or not was the problem.

There were rumors that an old scientist was the one behind Lilia's kidnapping. He wondered if that could be true for all of the others. He sat down and turned on the news waiting to hear that someone else had gone missing. It was an epidemic now. People went missing every day, but still in small numbers. He had already put his children to bed as was the ritual. He was starting to feel guilty for that though. In a way his search for their mother made him neglect them, but he just could not bear the thought of them growing up without her.

"Tonight there is a startling rise in disappearances. Our sources have informed us that a large group of soldiers has disappeared and not just in one place." The reporter said clearly sounding a little shocked. "We don't know exactly how many there are, but the numbers so far are staggering to say the least. So far, several hundred people have been reported missing."

Usher sat up on the couch and starred in almost disbelief. So far it was small groups of people. Maybe ten at the most, but one hundred or more was a high number. Shinra employed thousands of soldiers and a loss like that with the numbers rising could hinder them. The soldiers might start doubting the company and fear could make them weak. There were few that he knew could actually keep things like that in check.

He turned it up a little and listened as she went on. So far it was sketchy information. The reporters knew, but they were not allowed to ask anyone that would know. They were relying on their source and he guessed that it was someone in Shinra. It had to be someone pretty high up, but unnoticeable otherwise they would get caught. So far the only real number they gave was four hundred in several locations. He knew that there were sever groups of soldiers stationed all over the world for various reasons. He did understand why they could not all be taken from the same place.

If they took them from the same place then they could be more easily followed and found and he knew they were not ready to be found just yet. Taking them from several locations like that gave Shinra and anyone else a lot to work with. They would have to examine all of the sites in order to get anything. Since the events happened so close together in time it would be difficult and most people would have to assume there were several people involved.

He was also making that guess. Even if it were one person they could not possibly have the power to go to so many locations and take a lot of people. It is a lot of effort and not something one person would like to do on their own. Having someone else help them, but speed up the process and make things easier. It also means that Shinra would have to look for more than one person. One might get caught more easily than the other and they could escape for a while. He felt sure that eventually everyone would know what was going on and someone would pay for it. He hoped that in the end they would be able to find all of the missing people. What he really hoped most of all…is that they are all found alive.

* * *

Sephiroth had gone to the cafeteria finally deciding that he could not put off eating any longer. There was one television in there with the news on. He saw the breaking news about the next bought of missing soldiers. He was a little surprised that it was only soldiers that had gone missing. It meant that whoever was taking them needed soldiers. He guessed it was because of the things Shinra does to them. Each soldier gets exposed to some sort of mako processing even if they do not make it all the way into Soldier. Anyone in the Shinra military is stronger than most normal human beings. There may be a few that really could give Shinra trouble by their own merits, but they would have to train pretty hard to get there. 

The report was enough to make him pause, but he soon fell into the routine of eating. His body knew that it needed food so he ate it even though his main focus was on the news story. More than the usual small group of people had gone missing so that was more than enough to really interest him. He had actually gotten tired of hearing that some small family or groups of ten or fifteen were missing. They were small time things and something like this meant that they were getting serious.

There really was not much to the report. They were getting somewhat inside information, but it was sketchy at best. He knew that even Shinra at this point knew almost nothing about the incidents and it could be weeks before they really learned everything they could. Most of the time their investigations led to the same thing. All they ever found was a lot of nothing that told them these people vanished and they were not just taken away. No drag marks, extra footprints, or anything of the like was ever found.

He found it all very frustrating. He finished his meal deciding that they reporter would not tell him anything new right now. He would have to check tomorrow in order to find out anything else, but he really did not want to wait. He decided that once again he would stay here. It was the only way he felt close to Lilia at the moment. Her things were here. He could look through her drawings or look at the things he had gotten her to stir up some memories. He was annoyed by the fact that he could not contact her mentally at all. He felt that she was having a similar problem and felt the same as him.

He returned to the chamber and sat on her bed reaching out to anyone that might know more about the disappearances. At first he got the same thing he already knew from the news. Then when he started to get a little further and closer to the scenes he learned more. The numbers he was getting were a little surprising to him. One hundred in one area, two hundred in another, and some smaller numbers like fifty and seventy in some areas. Once he went through them all including past cases they all added up to ten thousand soldiers missing in action. It was more than he had expected.

_Whoever is doing this must be trying to create their own army with Shinra soldiers. _He thought. It sounded about right. He was wondering if that would be the last of the disappearances now that they had ten thousand people. The one thing he had not done was count Lilia in that. Somehow she did not seem to fit in with them. Her abduction was different from the others so he felt that there was a different reason for it. That idea was starting to make more sense to him now. He wondered if it was something against him or if it was something else.

He did not really have any evidence to support that. Whoever took her had just come in and then left in mere minutes and they were not exactly sloppy about it. They hardly left behind anything at all and the only thing they really had to go by were the rebel accounts of that day. Since all of them had said the same thing (and he had confirmed that it was the truth) they assumed it was right. A Soldier had done it. He only knew a few people that were MIA at the moment. Angeal and Genesis. He had not seen either of them for a while and they had not reported in to Shinra.

It was very suspicious of Genesis, but Angeal was different. Sephiroth could not really imagine him doing this, but he had no doubt that Genesis could. He vaguely heard the door open. It was Sheila. She had been bringing him some meals and whatever else he needed.

"You have new orders." She told him. At the same time she handed him the papers to explain it before leaving. She saw that once again he was sitting on her bed. She had found him several times sleeping there. It really made her sad since she had liked her and cared about them both. It was something that Sephiroth was just starting to notice. He guessed that without Lilia he never would have noticed how Sheila acted and how she had treated him.

He read over the orders and was a little surprised to find Angeal included. _So he will be going on this mission as well. I guess he finally decided to report back in after missing those others._ He kept reading. Zack would be there as well. They were just going to take care of some rebels that were starting to get a little bit out of hand. They were taking over trains and threatening civilians. He sighed and sat it down. He had some time before they would be moving out. They were to take out the train and he knew that could bring casualties from more than just the rebels. They had to find a way to minimize that. Their orders did not mention that at all. Shinra did not really care if ordinary people got hurt. So long as the problem was taken care of.

He went to sleep thinking about a lot of things. Most of all Lilia. He thought of her every day and made sure to remember what he had to do. He would not let Shinra completely get in the way of finding her. He did know that they wanted her back. Hojo especially wanted her back. Sephiroth did notice that even though she was not there he was still very busy doing experiments. He guessed that whatever he was doing now might have something to do with her, but he would still want her for other reasons. He did not bother to find out what he might be doing. At the moment he simply did not care.

**Part 2: **Don't Break the Silence

Dennis found himself blocked at every turn. Her family had somehow managed to figure it out. He was not entirely sure that Jan had told her husband or not, but now they knew. Apparently they were not the only ones that wanted to forget whatever happened back then. He had started out looking up old articles on the Internet, which was a bit of a challenge for him. Computers were not his thing. He grew up without them and hardly used them now.

He found small articles that told him different things about the same event. All of them seemed unsure of what was going on anyway. He actually got the feeling that they were not the only ones. In the articles two men were fighting in a wide open field. That much was the same. Neither article gave a reason for the fighting, just that some bystanders had been injured. After reading through them he learned that it had been Terra and her baby. He guessed that it was Lilia since it said two year old. Most of the articles concluded that the one reported to have started the fight was trying to hurt anyone and everyone. The other was more defensive trying to protect them.

How they described the fight was a bit fantastical. Each description was a bit hard to believe. He did think that it sounded familiar...or at least parts of it did. He was not sure why he felt that way. He did not really want to believe what he read.

_They fought with swords, and seemed to defy gravity to a point. The man in red's sword glowed strangely. He also mentioned something about being betrayed by him. Fire, and strange lights appeared out of nowhere. _Those were just a few things that some of them said about it. Most of what they said were eyewitness accounts. That meant that the family would have given their statements, but he was not sure if he could get those since he had nothing to do with it.

The fight was short, but when it was done one man just disappeared and the other was injured heavily. He was taken to the hospital by his wife and later died there. The injuries were too much and the doctors could not save him. All of the reports were vague, but they had gone and taken a picture of the field. There were marks left behind from the fight. He wondered if they would still be there now. He could see burn marks and a small crater or two. Just from that he had trouble believing that it was a normal fight.

The articles had given him some incite into the mans last moment, but he still felt he needed more. He still could not find his name. Most of the records of their family had been altered by the family. He did know that there were certain things they could not change. He knew that somewhere Terra had all of those records, but he guessed that the family had those now.

All of this did make for an awkwardness between them. When he went to church they gave him strange looks. Some of them were a little angry. None of them had said anything to them. This last time he had noticed that Jan looked a bit apologetic. He guessed that she had told, but he would not hold it against her. Afterward she had not gotten the chance to talk to him. She actually called him later to say she was sorry.

_"I'm sorry, Dennis. I had to tell him. I felt guilty about it, but I think I can help you out a little. I decided that it's only right. He was a good man and doesn't deserve to be forgotten for what he did." _She said over the phone. He was glad to hear that. He was finally going to get somewhere and it had been a few months since he had started.

"It doesn't matter that you told them. I don't care." He said to reassure her. He did not want her to think he blamed her for anything.

_"I want to tell you a little more and I have something to give you. It's some of the things that Terra kept locked away. It's been a year and we've hardly gone through any of it. I found this and decided to keep it so it wasn't destroyed." _She said sounding slightly nervous. Her husband would not like this all that much. _"We'll have to meet somewhere or you can come by when he's at work." _She said pausing to rethink that. _"Whenever you have the time...just call first."_ She finished.

"Ok. I will." He said glad that she was willing to help. "I'll try to come by soon. Thanks, Jan. This really means a lot to me." He finished hearing her hang up. He smiled slightly feeling that he was really going to get somewhere with this. He wanted to solve this mystery quickly and find Lilia. He was ready for it to be over.

**Author:** Now it has really gotten started. Sephiroth is starting to suspect the right people even though there is little evidence to support it. Now that a lot more people have disappeared Shinra will have to start putting forth more effort into finding them. That could lead to some more promising results in finding Lilia and the others. There is also Angeal who has now resurfaced in Shinra. It should be obvious that Sephiroth will have some tough questions for him. The fact that he can read his mind might help, but will he actually do that since they are friends. Sometimes it is hard to believe that our friends (especially the good ones) can do terrible things.

Also there is another thing that I want to make clear. It actually has to do with how time moves on Gaia and Earth. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but time on Earth moves more slowly than Gaia. The way I wrote it it basically means that 4yrs on Gaia is only 1yr on Earth. However the event mentioned here is only shortly after a year even though technically more time than that has passed. I felt that I needed to mention it again since the events in the story kind of make you forget what's going on on Earth. Besides the fact that it furthers the plot of the story...ever so slowly.


	41. Chance

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 41 Chance

Sephiroth and Zack were waiting with the small clean-up crew. Both of them had a lot of questions for Angeal and he was late. They were already in position and any error could kill a lot of people. They waited until they had to go and started to leave so they could start. They had to get to the other station where another group was setting up explosives. Sephiroth knew he was only there as an observer. He led the mission and it was making some of them nervous.

Zack had to board the train, but he could not actually get on when it arrived. If he did the rebels would see him and split. They did not want them to go into hiding. Then they would have to change plans and wait until they could do this again. Before they went anywhere he arrived.

All of them noticed how tired and sad he looked. He went up to Sephiroth and nodded. "Where have you been?" Sephiroth asked quietly.

"I can't say. I'm sorry. It was a personal matter." He said trying to think of his father. It was the only personal thing he had. He was dead and G had killed him. He had to keep himself from thinking of Lilia in that room again.

"Is that so. You know you missed a few missions. Have you…." Sephiroth began, but Angeal interrupted him.

"It's all been taken care of. After this I'm being reprimanded." He said with his head down. Sephiroth did not have time now to question him fully. It would have to wait. The mission was their priority, but he would make sure that Angeal told him everything.

Zack wanted to ask him about everything, but he also knew they did not have the time. The train was coming soon. Sephiroth told him what his objective were just to make sure he understood and then they left. Zack was on his own. He would have to get up higher so no one would see him. At the moment he could see all the waiting passengers. He guessed that some of them might be rebels, but the majority were civilians. There were only about ten people at this stop.

This train was one of the busiest though so he expected there to be a lot of people onboard. He made his way to the tracks via rooftops trying to stay silent as possible. He jumped over to the station roof and ducked down so no one would see him. In a few minutes the train would arrive. He was already hoping that nothing went wrong here. He could die, and so could any civilians. He had to separate the rear car or cars and make sure they stopped. The front car he knew had a large group of rebels in it. They had taken that over and prevented passengers from staying there. It was a lot for him to do alone.

* * *

Sephiroth and company made it to the next stop. They had already told the driver what they planned and he would have to take precautions to keep himself alive. It was not something they were going to do for him. Once the train tripped the explosives anyone inside would die from the explosion or when they land below. It was a very long way down and most people would never survive that. 

Angeal made sure to stay away from Sephiroth not wanting to talk about his whereabouts as of late. It was a touchy subject and he did not want to have to lie. It was not something he was good at and he knew Sephiroth could easily read his mind. G had warned him about that. His being here was to keep an eye on Shinra and their investigation into the disappearances. He really did not even know how many people were down there now.

Sephiroth noticed how he was avoiding him. It told him that he had a secret and avoiding him was the only way he knew to hide it. He reached out and tried to look through his mind. Something got in his way. He was not really sure what it was at first. He could feel Angeal struggling against him. _So you're really going to fight me this way to hide you're secret?_ He said.

_I'd rather not. But you could at least ask me later instead of invading!_ Angeal answered him. It was a tough struggle for him. He was not mentally strong and had never used his mind this way. He knew that Genesis, Sephiroth, and Lilia did. He knew it was something Genesis used against him all the time. He could not do that. His mind was not strong enough. Had he tried to use it before he thought maybe he could do that as well. He would rather not though.

_Fine. I'll give you the chance to explain, but if you lie…you'll regret it._ Sephiroth said mentally telling him the reason he was so suspicious. Angeal understood. To them it was odd that Lilia and him would be missing at the same time. He let it go knowing that Sephiroth would keep his word. He was that kind of man. They had to focus on the task at hand. Lives were at stake.

* * *

Zack watched the train arrive and he noticed how the last person on looked around the area before boarding. He was definitely one of the rebels. Once he went in Zack stood up. The train started to leave and he waited for the right moment. He had to get to the second to last car. He would have to quickly move the civilians back to the last car. He knew that might be difficult since some of them might be more loyal to the rebels. Shinra was not really that popular even though they did provide power to the city. 

He made it onto the last car and braced himself. It was hard to keep his balance, but he managed rather quickly. He had to if he wanted to get off when he was suppose to. He jumped down between the cars and went inside. He took a quick look around and noticed some of the looks he was getting. Before coming in here he had looked in the last car to see how many people were in there. He was not one hundred percent sure if he would have to unhitch the last car or the last two.

There really were not a whole lot of people in this car. He guessed that there were a few rebels in this one. They probably had a few in every car as lookouts. He knew he would have all of them following him as he made his way up the train. "Alright everyone! I need you to move to the rear car now! If you don't then there is the distinct possibility that you could die!" He said wanting to put a little fear into them. He hoped that none of them would get argumentative. That way he could quickly do his job.

He did not even wait for anyone to say anything. He made his way to the next car telling them they had five minutes. He knew it took ten to get to the next stop, but he wanted them to hurry. In the next car he did the same. He did notice that there were a few people following him. This made him speed up a little bit. Once he got to the front of the train and moved the passengers he would go up on the roof to take care of them. He also noticed them hang back when he got to the last one.

_Guess they figured out my plan. I just hope they let the other passengers get by._ He thought while he told that car to vacate. He waited inside for a few minutes giving the passengers time to make it to the other end. He would have to do the same and check to see if they only occupied the last car. Once on the roof he glanced ahead to see where they were. So far things had gone according to plan.

He started towards the back of the train and found himself under fire. They had hung back and were positioning a few people per car. He figured that they had already told their friends what was happening. He had tried to keep it quiet as long as he could. Now it did not matter anyway. He only had two things left to do. Unhitch the cars and then get off. The last one was a priority. He would also have to make sure they put on the brakes after he unhitched them. If they did not do that they could end up getting hurt.

He ran to the next car avoiding the bullets flying his way. He had to hurry. He had a time limit here and he did not want to miss it. However, the rebels had no intention of letting him get by them. Even though he jumped over one group they were not going to ignore him. The next group had swords and they were ready for a fight. They really were not very good fighters though. They were sloppy and Zack just ended up beating them. He moved on ignoring the next guys and tried to ignore the next.

He leapt over them making his way to the next car. This was where he needed to be so he jumped down between them and looking into the cars. He could see that most of the passengers had listened. The last two cars were pretty full. He went in and told them what he was going to do. He stressed to them that they had to hit the emergency break right after.

With that done he went outside and quickly unhitched it. He watched them start to lose momentum and then slow dramatically. He smiled a little and then jumped back up to the roof. He had to make sure where they were. He looked around and cursed. Somehow he had taken too much time and missed his stop. He knew that here there was nowhere to go except down. He glanced over the edge and sighed. He did not like that idea, but now he really did not have a choice. The rebels were closing in on him and in less than a minute the explosives would go off.

"Nowhere to go now." They said laughing. He knew they were right and made a very quick decision.

"Oh well. You'll all be dead soon anyway." He said. Then he ran over to the edge and jumped. Most of them stood there stunned. They could not believe he would be so stupid. He was dead for sure. At the same time they heard an explosion behind them and turned around. They were greeted with another one and some made the same leap he had.

Zack saw everything as he fell. He watched up until the train started to derail and the tracks gave. He noticed some bodies falling away from it. He guessed they were some of the men he had just faced. He already thought what he did was a horrible idea. _Stupid! I don't want to die like this!_ He thought. _That was a stupid idea!_

* * *

Sephiroth and Angeal watched the train come. Everything was ready and they hoped Zack had done his job. From their view they could see that he had. They saw a group of people standing on the roof. They were going to be dead soon. Seconds later the train tripped the explosives. There was only a slight delay so the car containing the rebels would be most damaged. 

Now all that was left was for Zack to return and then Sephiroth could have a long talk with Angeal. Once everything had quieted down they went down to have a look. They made sure to kill any rebel they found still alive along with anyone else. Some of it was to save them from suffering. That done Sephiroth looked at the time. He was starting to get worried about Zack. _He should have arrived by now._

"Angeal. I'm leaving you in charge for now. I'm going to look for Zack." He said. Angeal nodded also thinking the same thing. He was late. Sephiroth was not really in the mood for this so he reached out with his mind and found him. He was not really that far from them, but he was not where he was supposed to be.

Nothing about today seemed to be going right. He felt slightly annoyed and it was starting to show. He silently left the scene and made his way into the slums to find Zack. This was just another inconvenience of the day for him.

* * *

"Are you ok? Hello?" 

Zack woke to the sound of a girl's voice. It surprised him and for some reason the first person he thought of was Lilia. He knew it was not her though. He opened his eyes and saw her standing over him. She looked very worried. At first, his vision was blurred, but that cleared up quickly. The first thing he noticed was how pretty she was. The way her hair was and what she wore only made it better. It made him think the fall might have actually killed him.

"Are you an angel?" He said groaning a little. The fall had hurt him a little. She laughed when he said that. It made him smile.

"It's good to see that you're ok." She said ignoring his question. "You scared me there." She said helping him sit up. He looked around when he finally noticed the smell. There were flowers all around them. They were in a church. It looked abandoned though.

"Flowers?" He was surprised that they could grow here. He did not think anything could grow here in Midgar, but they all looked healthy.

"I take care of them." She said. "No one thought they'd grow, but here they do." She said looking at them fondly.

"That's amazing." He said lost in her voice. She sounded like an angel to him and he was falling in love. He tried to get up, but failed and she helped him. He was still a little dazed. He made his way to the nearest pew and sat down. "I'm Zack Fair." He said remembering his manners.

"Aeris Gainsborough." She answered smiling. She stood there in front of him for a moment and then went back to tending the flowers. Zack could not stop smiling. There was something about her that he could not figure out.

_I think she might be the one._ He thought. He was trying to come up with a way to ask her out that did not sound dumb. He figured that if he did not ask now he might never get to. He watched her for a while and they talked a little.

She looked at her watched and gasped. "I need to go home now." She looked up at him and smiled a bit nervously. "Would you mind doing me a favor?" She asked innocently. He smiled and shook his head.

_Of course I don't mind!_ He was thinking excitedly. He made sure not to say that out loud though.

"Would you walk me home? It's late and sometimes it's a bit dangerous around here." She said. He stood up and smiled.

"Sure, but on one condition." He said holding up a finger.

"What's that?"

"We go on a date." He said. She giggled and turned away.

"We don't even know each other."

"We can talk on the way and learn more about one another on our date. If you don't like me after that we'll just be friends." He said to reassure her. It worked well enough and she agreed. He sighed thinking that was easier than he thought it would be. It had also just occurred to him that Sephiroth and Angeal were waiting for him. _Oops! I forgot about them. I hope they don't get too mad._ He thought. He did not intend to pass up this opportunity. He did feel slightly guilty. If Sephiroth saw this he might feel sad thinking of Lilia.

* * *

Sephiroth entered the slums and wondered why they were allowed to live this way. Waste lay everywhere as if this were just a huge trashcan. The smell was bordering unbearable. He covered his nose until he reached an area that was less offensive. 

He reached out again to find Zack. He was going somewhere and he was not alone. There was a woman with him. For a moment it made him jealous, but he got over that in an instant. He had no right to feel that way. He knew that Zack had been jealous of what he had with Lilia. He did not want to feel the same way about Zack and her. He knew he was sort of jumping to conclusions though.

He did not feel like prying at the moment so he let them be. He followed them with his mind so he would know where he needed to go. It took him some time to get there. He was actually surprised by what he saw. The slums were normally a decrepit place where the poor lived. He never imagined that he would find a flower garden there.

He saw them go in her house. He did not want to cause a stir so he waited outside looking at the flowers. He really did wish that Lilia could see this with him. He knew that she would like it. It was the oasis in the desert. He waited several minutes feeling a little sad.

Zack finally came out saying his goodbyes to them. Aeris wanted to see him off so she came outside too. They were both surprised to find Sephiroth there. "Sephiroth? I guess you came looking for me." Zack said. He just nodded.

"It's a little surprising to see flowers growing here." Sephiroth said after a short silence.

"You're right. I just water them and they grow." Aeris said cheerfully. She could sense that he was sad for some reason.

"We should go, Zack. Angeal will be waiting." He said walking away. Zack nodded and said goodbye making sure to reiterate when their date was. She smiled and went inside. He followed Sephiroth still feeling a little excited over what had happened to him. "I see you're happy."

"There's just something about her, Seph. We have a date this weekend." He said.

"You don't waste any time do you?" Sephiroth said.

"Might not have gotten the chance otherwise." He replied. He was starting to calm down and decided that they should stop talking about it. Sephiroth was starting to sound depressed. His face was unreadable at the moment. He was thinking about a lot of things.

Once they made it back to the scene they could see that it still had a long way to go. The wreckage would take some time to clean up and that would mean a lot of angry people tomorrow. They still had to go pick up the two cars Zack had unhitched.

After that was over they all felt tired. They had worked most of the night. Sephiroth was tired and decided that he could wait a while before questioning Angeal. He still ended up sleeping in the chamber in her bed. It was a ritual for him now. Four months felt like four years to him right now. He wanted it to end soon.

**Author:** Thought it was time to introduce Aeris into this. In the next chapter there will be many questions for Angeal, but will he answer…maybe. He is afraid of Sephiroth and he has seen how he can get. If all else fails Seph can just read his mind in the end. I may put something else in there from earth. I realized I haven't mentioned her old roommates Jen and Sarah. I don't know if you remember what happened to them. Hospitalization is one thing, but there is the aftermath that I completely neglected to mention. May also be more on her father in there, but you don't get to know who he is yet. Not the right time.


	42. Questions

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 42 Questions

**Part 1: **Interrogation

Sephiroth got up very early the next day. When he went to sleep his last thoughts were of Angeal and some of the questions he had. He was up before the sun and he was on a mission. He knew that Angeal was in his apartment. He would not be going far for a while. He did not know all the details of his punishment, but he guessed that it would be fairly lenient. Sephiroth did not plan on doing that.

He needed to know if his suspicions were true. _Angeal had gone missing that day. Where was he the whole time…while you were gone? _He thought along the way. The question he had for him was simple, but he knew the answer might not be. If he was not satisfied he would pry into his mind. He did not want to be lied to. In a way Sephiroth felt angry that he had not let him do it before. It meant he had a secret and Sephiroth was determined to figure it out before the day was over.

He arrived there to find Zack already there. He had been the one to answer the door. A little bit of prying told him he had slept there. "Looks like we both had the same idea. I did not forget about that." Zack said. Angeal was in the kitchen getting a drink. He looked up briefly, but said nothing. Sephiroth could see that he was slightly annoyed. He guessed it was because of Zack.

"I see." Sephiroth replied sitting down. Both of them were sitting at the table waiting for Angeal to finish. He was taking his time since he was not looking forward to this. Both of them watched him and he could feel the power of Sephiroth's gaze. He finally sat down, but did not look at them. They sat in silence for a few minutes none of them quite ready to start. Sephiroth decided he should start. "You know why we're here. There are a few things we need to know. I don't know what you told him," He said meaning the president. "but you'll tell us the truth." He said.

Angeal sighed. He knew he needed to say something. "I didn't really say anything to the president. He wasn't interested in an explanation." He said. "I know you won't leave until you find out where I've been though." He said quietly. They both nodded looking stern.

"So where were you, Angeal? We were supposed to go on that mission together. It meant the end of our punishment for taking Lilia without permission." Zack said. "And now she's gone..." He said more quietly.

"I know." Angeal replied looking into his drink.

"So tell us. Where were you that day?" Sephiroth said trying to speed up his answers a little. They both looked at him and waited for his answer. "If you won't tell us…then I may be forced to do something none of us will like, Angeal." He said making sure he understood the threat.

"I see. So you really want to know that bad. You're willing to hurt me to find out." He said. Sephiroth nodded. Zack was not sure what to do. He did not want to hurt Angeal at all. He just wanted to hear the truth. "I said it was a personal matter and it was true." He said once again thinking of his father. G had told him what to say if they asked. He had to have some kind of alibi. "I had gone to see my father, but I found him dead." That part was completely true. Neither of them seemed to dispute that.

"I doubt that kept you away for so long." Sephiroth said. Angeal nodded.

"No it didn't. I ran into G after taking care of his body. That did keep me for a while." He said. Sephiroth frowned hearing his name. G had been gone longer than Angeal had and they were also curious as to where he had gone. Sephiroth knew that Shinra must have been wondering that as well. "G has…become delusional." He said. Sephiroth believed it and so did Zack. "I tried to help him, but eventually I found he was beyond it." He said trying not to bring up the images of Lilia cut up and bloody.

"Is that really what kept you from returning? You must have heard what happened that day." Sephiroth said. "You knew it would be suspicious you disappearing at the same time."

"Yes. I realized that, but I did come back anyway. I won't hide just because it looks suspicious. Shinra will do nothing to me. I'll just be watched for a while and that'll be that." He said.

"Where exactly did your father live? I didn't even know you knew him." Sephiroth said remembering that all three of them had felt the same. They all felt abandoned by their parents. They thought they might never find them and somehow he had.

"A small house on the western continent. He had decided to live alone. He was actually the one who found me some time ago." Angeal said. It was true and Sephiroth could sense that it was. He was not so sure about the location though. It was too hard to tell. The house could be gone by now.

"Did you ask Genesis what he had been doing all the time he was gone?" Zack asked. He was curious about that now. He thought G was the type to do something like this as well. He had noticed how he acted around them all. He was always a little hostile.

"I did, but he was incapable of giving me a real answer." He said. He was hoping that this would satisfy them.

"When you learned of the attack and that Lilia was gone…what did you do?" Sephiroth asked. Angeal took a deep breath and then answered.

"G had been gone for a few days by then. I heard from a group of soldiers about the attack, but I heard nothing of her disappearance. A few days later G came back. I had looked for him, but he is good at hiding when he wants to." Angeal said. "He is the one who told me about her. I wondered how he found out, but asking him wouldn't have gotten me anywhere." He finished.

"You think he may have done it." Sephiroth said sounding a little skeptical. Angeal nodded. "The only problem is that all of the witnesses saw someone in a Soldier uniform. That means a soldier and G doesn't dress like that. They would have remembered him." Sephiroth said. G's red leather jacket was very recognizable. No one else in Shinra wore anything like that.

"Hm. So then maybe he only orchestrated it. He can make a good argument when he wants to. It would have been easy for him to convince someone to do it…or force them." Angeal replied. Sephiroth had to agree with him. It was something G was good at. He could not deny that. He had gotten them into plenty of trouble when they were younger. None of it ever ended with him being punished.

"It's possible." Sephiroth said.

"If you thought that then what did you do about it? You didn't just let him walk away did you?" Zack said frowning.

"He stayed there willingly for a while, but then decided that he was leaving. I never asked him where he had gone that week. He would have lied to me. I tried to stop him, but he had planned it all out. I guess he knew I would try to stop him." Angeal said. That was pretty much the end of the conversation for now. Zack could not really tell if he was lying, but he found if far more likely that Genesis had something to do with it than Angeal.

Sephiroth was still kind of suspicious. He could tell from the sound of his voice that it was all laced with lies. It was subtle so he knew there was truth there, but how much was the question. Zack left, but Sephiroth stayed. He waited for Zack to go before voicing his opinion. "Angeal. I know you lied." He said. "I can't say it was all a lie, but you did lie." He said glaring at him. Angeal shifted slightly in his chair.

"We're friends aren't we?" Angeal asked. Sephiroth was beginning to wonder if they really were. He nodded slightly, but hesitantly.

"Sometimes I wonder who my friends really are." Sephiroth replied.

"I wouldn't lie unless there was a very…very good reason. All I can do is ask that you trust me." Angeal said.

"If you knew where she was right now…would you tell me?" Angeal said nothing. Sephiroth sighed. "I see. Then I guess we aren't really friends. It calls into question you're loyalty and honor Angeal." Sephiroth said standing up. He decided that either way he would learn the truth, but he would not pry right now when he was right there in front of him.

"Sephiroth, I would if I could, but I can't help you. I wish I could. She was my friend too." He said. Sephiroth noticed the past tense there. He paused wondering if it meant something. "I know you'll find her." He said. He was thinking of what he was going to do. He knew G was watching all of this. He knew that G was only watching to keep Sephiroth out of his head. He knew he was not trying right now. He would feel it even if G blocked him. He sensed that he was getting a kick out of this. He got to see his reactions to this and some of his feelings. Angeal knew that he would later regret this.

Sephiroth left feeling a little disappointed in Angeal. He was also thinking of G. If he did have something to do with her disappearance it may not be impossible to find her until he decides they should. He went into his apartment looking at it for the first time since he had left Midgar. He had not even bothered to come here when he learned she was gone. He wanted to stay there where he felt closer to her. He was not even sure why he felt that way other than that is where she had stayed. He felt like there was another reason. One he could not quite grasp at the moment.

He sat on the couch feeling a little frustrated. It had not taken them long to get a story out of him, but Sephiroth knew it was something he had made up mostly. He needed some time to figure out what to do next. He wanted to have a look into Angeal's mind, but he wanted to have some goals. He did not want to just look for anything. He wanted to be specific in his search to save him some time and annoyance.

After a few minutes went by he decided to go ahead and try. He reached out to Angeal and felt his mind. He got no struggle from him like he had before. He had been prepared for him them, but not this time. He slipped in, but found himself being pulled away by something. He ignored it. It was not very strong, but the further he went the stronger it got. _Someone is trying to stop me. It means he knows something._ Sephiroth thought after some time of it. He figured it was G and that somehow he had forced Angeal into all of this. It was something he noticed when he talked. He looked and sounded sad and regretful.

The force fighting him was strong, but he was determined to find out what was going on. However, it was also determined to stop him and reinforced itself in one place. Sephiroth guessed that it was hiding something it did not want him to find. He started to recognize that is really was G. It felt a lot like him. _Genesis! Stop this!_

He heard a strange laughter before him. It sounded like G so he knew he was right. G was protecting that knowledge very well. He was putting up a very strong barrier and Sephiroth soon found that it was useless to try and get past it. He soon gave up and turned around making sure to say something to Angeal before he left. _I know you and him are involved in this otherwise he wouldn't try so hard to stop me from doing this. I'll find the truth with or without you!_ He said angrily. He was frustrated that he could not do as he had planned.

He did get to feel some of Angeal's emotions. He was sad that he could not help Sephiroth. He felt a lot of regret as well, but for what Sephiroth was not sure. There were so many and he was too annoyed to continue. He left his mind and then sighed. "I guess I know where his loyalty lies." He whispered.

**Part 2:** Back to School

After the incident the apartment had to be cleared out for a while. It was completely stripped of everything. They cleaned it up and made it look just like new. Of course, new there does not really mean much. All of their things had been moved to another apartment. They obviously could not live there.

The housing department from the school had to make sure it was still filled though. Why have an empty apartment? They filled it with four new people and never even bothered to tell them what happened in there. Of course, they did know, but which apartment it was had been left out. No one really knew. Rumors spread quickly and the truth always gets twisted.

Jen had finally gone back after she fully recovered. She did not even bother to go into the old apartment even though she still had the key. She just returned it and picked up the key to her new apartment. Sarah was not there then. She was still too traumatized from that night to continue. Nightmares of things she had seen that night haunted her. She could never figure out whom all the people were and if it were even real. To her right now it was all just a dream.

It made things hard for her family. Almost every night they woke to her screaming. Every time she screamed out a name, but she never remembered it. It was something that bothered her and her family would not tell her what she said. They thought it might drag up too many things for her. She was not one to deal with these kinds of things well.

After more than a year Sarah went back to school. She ended up moving back in with Jen. The school and her family thought it was best. She remembered her and had no problem with her whatsoever. She had wanted to see how she was doing. She did know that she had been in the hospital with her, but the reason escaped her. She did not know why they had been admitted there in the first place.

Everyone decided that it would just be better if they forgot the whole incident. It was in the news and in the papers for a while, but that died down very quickly. It came to the point where no one mentioned it and seemed to forget altogether. Jen remembered it clearly enough, or at least what she was awake for. She knew Sarah did not remember and knew better than to mention it.

One day on the way home from school Sarah passed their old apartment. She paused for a moment wondering why exactly they had been moved. She could not remember so she felt there was absolutely no reason for it. She paused to look at it and got a flash of something. It scared her a little. It was only a glimpse and it was not pleasant. She had seen a scary looking man standing over her in the dark. He was shrouded in shadow so she could not identify him at all and did not really care to. She shivered and then moved on. She decided that it was better to forget it and not to mention it to anyone. They were worried enough about her right now.

**Author: **Ok so Angeal still lied and Sephiroth couldn't get what he really wanted, but now he really knows something is up and has his own proof. He'll be watching Angeal pretty closely for a while. Her roommates finally get some mention in here. It's been a while and I did not want you to completely forget them. I don't know if they'll get mentioned again or not.


	43. Redemption pt 1

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up.

**This will be in 2 parts if you hadn't noticed. Part 2 will be another chapter!**

Ch. 43 Redemption part 1

I woke up hearing a loud buzzing sound. I was not sure if it was just in my head or what. I was still strapped down to the table so there was nothing I could do except fidget and complain. It was prevalent all day long and today I felt like something was about to happen. I felt tired and I had been feeling that way. It has been nearly six months since I first got here.

I did not fail to notice that Genesis was not healing my wounds at all. I could feel them slowly healing on their own. It was a strangely slow process though. I guess it just seems that way since I have not had a mako bath. Usually after some injury a mako bath would make me better. Any sign of wounds would disappear as if they never happened. I have to wonder why G is doing this.

For the past few days he has been acting strange, at least for him. He has been mumbling to himself and I have not exactly cared enough to listen to his ramblings. Another thing I have noticed is that Angeal has not been around as much. I suppose there is a good reason for that. For a while he was here all the time. Said he had to keep tabs on Genesis. I left it at that, but now it is kind of lonely.

He would come in and talk to me. Sometimes he would be there when G came and that would make G mad. He would frown, sigh, and then leave. Those had to be my favorite days in this place. He would not come back all day even though Angeal never stayed the whole time. I did notice how sad he appeared. He seemed to be sad when he came to see me.

I wanted to do or say something that would make him feel better, but he would never let me. He always said he deserved to feel that way. He told me I should not worry about him. I also asked him about Sephiroth and why he had not said anything to him. His answer was that he had not seen him in a while. I found it hard to believe, but I did not say anything about that. I was having a hard time reading his thoughts. Whatever barrier G was using to keep me from contacting Sephiroth also applied to him and Angeal.

I was kind of glad and sad that I could listen in or talk to the other people here. Not long ago I tried talking to Mirrin, but she would not answer me. I could not figure out what was wrong with her until it dawned on me that she was not really there. She was now just one of those deepground soldiers. No mind, or voice, just a shell that takes orders. I cried when I figured it out. _How do I tell Usher?_ That was all I could think. How to tell him?

I also noticed that suddenly there were a lot more people here; a whole army of them. I realized that was what G was doing other than torturing me. For a while after what he did he left me alone and I guessed that he was working on that. I guess he has to, but I really wish it would all just be destroyed after G is gone. Unfortunately, I know that is not how Shinra works. They will cover it up and that will be that…until deepground is found anyway.

Today G came in mumbling like he has been. He looked at me and smiled devilishly. I could not read his mind, but the look on his face told me something was about to happen. Something I probably would not like. "Today, you'll be leaving here." He said quietly. I looked at him surprised. _What exactly does that mean? _I was thinking.

"Angeal finally betrayed me. He told them." He said looking away. "Not that I care. They'll be here soon, but you're not fit to see them just yet." He said sounding demented. He turned around and slowly came towards me. He gave me a shot and then unstraped me. It took a few moments, but I started to feel strange.

Everything around me looked blurry and dark. It was enough to force me to close my eyes. A few seconds later I felt him pick me up. I felt dizzy and I knew I could not even attempt to fight back right now. Without warning I felt him toss me away. For a few seconds I felt like I was flying and then there was the inevitable crash. I hit glass and it broke.

The noise was so loud and I could not help but scream. I hit the ground and lay there unwilling to move. There was no reason to. I briefly opened my eyes and saw his boots. I could hear him talking along with the crunching of glass as he walked, but at the moment it was irrelevant to me. Whatever he had to say to me now meant nothing. I did notice that he had picked me up again and he was walking off with me over his shoulder.

I stayed limp still feeling strange. I could hardly see and everything sounded too loud. I wanted to cover my ears, but every inch of me hurt right now. Once again I felt him toss me. I hit the wall and heard a loud crack. I guess it might not have normally been that loud, but to me it was deafening. My right arm hurt more after that and I guessed it was because it was broken or fractured.

Once again he picked me up and he was mumbling the whole time. He walked and I heard every footstep. After a while and many repeats of before I heard loud running footsteps. They were getting closer and I could hear someone shouting. I really could not tell who it was. The words were garbled to me and I failed to understand them. I did not even bother to listen since it appeared that they were not talking to me.

I was tossed to the ground and I groaned from the old and new pain. After a few minutes of hearing shouts and other conversation, along with some struggling I decided to get up and leave. They were busy and I did not intend to stay in case G wanted to abuse me more. I could see them but barely so I turned around to go the opposite way. I could hardly stand or walk, but I forced myself to manage it. I had to leave. I hugged the wall and went as fast as my legs would allow. It was not really all that fast as I realized a few minutes later.

Someone grabbed my arm and yanked me back violently. I fell and shrieked in surprise. A second later I was being picked up. At first I thought it was G, but the way I was held was different. I did not feel threatened by this person. He was running and I could hear G behind us shouting. He was not really making an attempt to catch up right now. Now I was being talked to, but I still failed to understand.

After a while, I am not really sure how long, he stopped and made me stand up. He said something, but I was still having trouble understanding. "You have to keep going on your own now." He said. It was the fourth or fifth time he said it. I could not really recognize his voice at the moment. He helped me stand for a few moments and then let go so I had to balance myself. He said something else and then was gone for a few moments. I was struggling to keep myself upright. I did not like the thought of standing or falling at the moment. He returned and put something on me seeing as I had been naked the whole time. It appeared to be just a doctor's jacket.

I heard him leave after that going the other direction and all I could do was keep going forward not even knowing if I was going the right way. My head was just beginning to clear, but not enough to help. There was this laughter in my head that I could hear all around me. I was debating if it was really in my head or not. I just knew that it sounded bad and I was trying to get away from it.

On and on the passage went and I followed feeling nearly blind. My vision had not gotten any better and I could hardly focus on anything other than walking. After some time I started to hear voices in the distance. It was hard to tell if they were good or bad, or even people. I chose to ignore them for the moment. I had to keep going. I could tell that they were getting closer now. I reached the end of the wall and decided that it would be a bad idea to walk without some kind of a support.

I turned the corner and the voices stopped at the same time. I thought that was a little odd, but so was this entire day. I took a few steps forward and then realized that there were people in front of me. I could not really see them. They were blurs of color. All I saw was black and blue with some peach mixed in.

I was trying to make them out to see who they might be, but the effort make me lose my balance somehow. I stumbled and at the same time I heard loud running steps. I felt someone catch me and I guessed that it was one of them. It actually hurt and I winced. At first I had felt strong arms around me and then they loosened making me feel a little better. It did not hurt quite as much. A second later I passed out seeing nothing and feeling nothing. No dreaming and no pain.


	44. Redemption pt 2

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up.

Ch. 44 Redemption part 2

Angeal went straight over to the building looking for Sephiroth. He knew that he had to do it now. He had to tell him. He found him easily enough. Everyone knew that Sephiroth spent most of his time on the sixty-seventh floor in the chamber. He found him there staring blankly at the ground. He looked up the instant Angeal opened the door.

"What do you want?" He said not sounding too friendly. They had hardly spoken since he returned. Sephiroth just did not want to talk to him now that he felt suspicious. Sephiroth had decided they were not friends after he lied to him.

"I know where she is and I'm ready to tell you now." He said out of breath. This got Sephiroth's full attention.

"Why now? Why not before?" Sephiroth asked suppressing the urge to get up and injure him.

"I couldn't say then, but now I don't have a choice. He plans on doing something to her and this is the only way to stop it." He said. "She's in deepground with G." He said quickly.

"She's been there the whole time." Sephiroth knew that it was just below the building. Of course, he did not really know all that much about it. No one really did since it had been abandoned. There were few records and most of them were kept by Hojo.

"Yes." Angeal said nodding. He turned around and left hastily. He had to go and tell the president so they could actually do something about it. He hoped that in the end Shinra would do something about deepground since G was messing around in it. Sephiroth quickly followed him finally able to see the full story without being blocked by G. He still felt a slight urge to hurt him especially when he saw Angeal had done it. He guessed that G had this all planned out. Angeal telling them now was probably part of his plan. He wanted them to see what he had done and he wanted to fight them.

"You were the one who took her." Sephiroth said. Angeal paused for a moment.

"Yes. I'm not proud of it. It was harder than you know...and I got to see what he did to her." He said hesitating to bring up the images. Sephiroth saw them and shuddered. He hoped that he did not find her like that. Before Sephiroth could really get angry Angeal ran on knowing that he was not in a forgiving mood.

After a hasty report to the president the Turks were called and Sephiroth and Angeal were ordered to get a team together to go and retrieve her. Angeal had other ideas. He knew that if something were not done now they could get there too late. He was worried that G might actually fulfill his promise and kill her. He knew he would try to be flashy about it though. He would hurt her a little and then wait for them to arrive. That way Sephiroth could see her die.

"I'm going to go into deepground right now. Get Zack and some MPs. I'll see if I can find G and get her away from him." Angeal said. Sephiroth nodded knowing that he was just trying to make up for all that he had done. He would have killed him if he had not been so hasty about this. He had come in and said it and then left and now he was literally running down the stairs and yelling up to him. Normally that would not be a problem, but this was different.

"Ok, but don't get yourself killed." He said thinking that he would still like to hurt him for this. Sephiroth ran past him wanting to hurry. He did not want to waste any time. Angeal told him how to get in on the way and then went himself remembering all the times he had come this way.

He tried to go as fast as he could, but the old elevator was not exactly up to speed. It was rarely used and had been forgotten. They had actually put a wall in front of it. G had taken care of that a long time ago. He wanted free access to the building and deepground. It was pretty convenient. Now it would come in handy to help Lilia. He hoped that G would not just kill her without an audience. He could handle her being a little roughed up.

He ran down hallways and then made it to her room. She was gone and there was glass all over the floor. _He's already started. _Angeal thought as he ran past the scene. He heard her screams and followed them to find them faster. He winced every time he heard that feeling a little responsible for her pain.

He found G walking off with her over his shoulder. The way he walked struck him. There was something odd about it. He noticed that she was not moving, but he guessed that G had drugged her. "Genesis!" He shouted trying to get his attention. He wanted him to stop so he could catch up. He did just that and even turned to face him. Angeal could see that Genesis was out of his mind. He looked crazed. This had to be the worst he had ever seen him. G threw her to the ground and Angeal could see that she was still conscious. "You have to stop. They know now and soon they'll be coming for you." Angeal told him.

"I know that. It was time for you to betray me and you have. All my friends do…don't they?" He said drawing his sword and giving him an evil smile. Angeal was not deterred. His objective was to get Genesis away from her. He hoped that she was not too hurt to move on her own. He drew his sword and attacked G trying to keep his attention on him. He saw her get up and smiled a little. He could see that it was very difficult though. He tried to deter G's attention as long as he could, but it was not long enough.

"Oh no you don't!" G said seeing her walking slowly away from them. Angeal tried to stop him, but he got past him. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Angeal ripped him away from her and then picked her up instead. He ran holding her close to him and he tried to tell her it would all be alright, but he could see that she did not understand him.

G raced after them, but soon gave up. It really did not matter to him. Angeal kept going making his way to the entrance. He knew G would be waiting and he was sure that Sephiroth would be there soon if not now. He stood her up and helped her keep her balance. "You have to keep going on your own now." He said. She still could not comprehend him so he repeated himself until she seemed to recognize the words. He also knew that she needed something to wear. He could see a white jacket hanging in the room nearby and put it on her. He felt a little better having given her that. He turned around and left her there hoping that she would be ok. He had to go and take care of G.

* * *

Siren sat at her desk reading the latest letter from Scythe. She had already read it a few times, but she still did not really like what she saw. She was still being asked to wait. _Wait for them to find her and then bring her to me._ She felt kind of annoyed that she had to do that. She was honestly getting tired of waiting on them. It just seemed to be taking so long. She was lost in thought and suddenly realized that someone was looking over her shoulder reading the letter. She crumpled it up and turned around to face them. It was Hojo and he did not look pleased. 

"Now tell me. What exactly is that?" She tightened her grip on it and shook her head. He frowned and then sighed. "If you're going to lie lie to someone else. I read it." He told her. "Sounds to me like you've been spying, but for whom?" He asked crossing his arms. He stood there waiting for an answer. He never got the chance to get one. They were interrupted.

"Ahem!" They heard beside them. Rude stood there wondering what exactly was going on. He ignored it for the moment since there were more pressing matters at hand. "You wanted to know the progress of the search." He said. Hojo nodded and waited for the rest. "We know where she is now. Someone gave up the location just a few minutes ago."

Hojo's face lit up. He completely forgot everything that had just happened. He was elated to hear that finally some kind of real progress had been made. He was glad that soon she would be coming back. Siren was thinking much the same thing. She wanted him to finish and tell them where she was. She had a plan of her own. "Where is she?" Hojo asked.

"Deepground." He stated. Hojo only looked mildly surprised. It was a logical place. It was much like the lab here, but most of the equipment was old and had never been updated. Deepground had been his first playground, but then soldier took precedence and he had to abandon it for the moment. He did have hopes of returning and continuing his research there.

"Who was it that aided in finding her?" Hojo asked. He was curious about that. Siren was too, but that was kind of irrelevant to her right now.

"Angeal Hewley." He said. After that he left having to go on and do his job. They still did not know what they were going to do. They had not discussed that yet. The president also had to give them his two cents. Ultimately he was going to decide the fate of deepground. Hojo left soon after as well to make preparations for her return. He was also pondering why Angeal was the one who told them. He had had his suspicions about his disappearance and reappearance. Siren decided to go and find out where she needed to go. She was going to go ahead and try to find her first in order to end her stay on this world a lot faster. She wondered if it was a wise idea, but she was going to be careful. If she failed she would simply return and wait as she had been told. Scythe would never have to know.

* * *

Sephiroth and Zack got a group of six MPs together and explained their objective. They were to search deepground and look for Lilia. Most of them knew her by then. Her photograph had been shown to everyone in Shinra to see if anyone had seen her recently. Of course, they had not she had been in deepground the entire time. Siren found them and decided to listen in. She wanted to know what they were doing so she could avoid them. After a quick brief they went in using the same elevator that Angeal had. They all felt that it was taking a long time to reach deepground and none of them really knew what to expect. 

No one in Shinra had been in deepground for a long time other than the two obvious people. They now knew that this was where there missing comrades were. It was not exactly something they had been told, but something they had guessed. It was an easy explanation and it was another guess that some sort of experimentation was going on down there. Most of them were not really looking forward to going in. They were a little afraid of what they might find.

Once inside they noticed a large trail of blood. They guessed it was meant for them to follow. Sephiroth knew it was probably G's way of leaving a _trail of breadcrumbs. _It was a something not all of them were ready to see. A few of them had to turn away and vomit. Sephiroth and Zack went on ignoring it. They followed it and found a hall leading to an office. It looked empty, but there was a great deal of blood in there as well. They saw the blood pool on the ground telling them that someone had been killed there. Who was the question.

After looking through the notes and other things left behind they learned that it was someone by the name of Hollander. Sephiroth knew that name, but he knew almost nothing about the man himself. He had worked there before Hojo. Hojo had mentioned him a few times calling him a hack. He found it ironic that he thought the very same thing of Hojo and so did many others.

Meanwhile Siren had followed them in. She kept her distance and tried not to get their attention. She was hoping that something would catch their attention so she could get by them. She was glad they decided to look in some of the rooms. It gave her the perfect chance to sneak by without being noticed. She did know, of course, that she had to be careful. Most of the MPs would not hear her at all. She knew Sephiroth might though. It was her fear for the moment. She did not want to be caught yet when she had just gotten in.

After slipping past them she continued following the blood trail until she came upon some corpses. She guessed they had been used to make the trail. She cringed and covered her nose, but moved on quickly. She did not take the time to examine them as she thought they might. She did not really have time for that. She kept going until she heard someone coming. She hid in a nearby room and watched them run by. She recognized them both and was surprised to see them. Angeal was running carrying the girl. She frowned thinking that now it would be impossible to get to her before he reached Sephiroth. They were not that far from them right now.

Not far off he sat her down, clothed her and then left going back the way he had come. Siren watched and waited. She let him go on for a bit until she was sure he was gone. She came out of hiding and went back into the hall to assess the situation. The girl was injured badly and she could see that she was having trouble walking. She desperately held onto the wall for support. Siren smiled at the sight. It was too perfect. She thought it was going to be difficult. She let her walk on for a moment and then realized that she could hear someone. She guessed that it was Sephiroth and company.

She decided that now was her chance to try. She got ready to run up behind her, but realized that she had spent just a little too much time basking in the glory of the moment. If she did anything they would hear her for certain and rush in. She knew how good a fighter Sephiroth was. She had nothing with her that could incapacitate him. She was fairly confident that he would be able to stop her before she could even open the path and leave. She halted and sighed. She scolded herself a little and then left. She had missed her opportunity for now.

* * *

After they left Hollander's room they continued on following the blood trail. Some of them still had weak stomach's. They ignored them and went on into the next room mainly trying to get away from the bodies and smell. Sephiroth noticed something new now. He could hear someone or rather two people. When he first heard them it was faint. He investigated further and found the first to be a very troubled and frightened individual. _Lilia?_ He thought. It had definitely felt like her, but she would not answer him. She seemed incapable of recognizing him at the moment. Her mind was going crazy and she was hearing things. She was also hurt and in a lot of pain. He ignored the other for the moment seeing as they had retreated. They stopped suddenly when everyone could finally hear her. 

She came into the room hugging the wall for support and they were all shocked to see her in such a condition. She was looking down and they could see how slowly she was walking. Sephiroth just stared for a moment wanting to weep. She looked terrible and he knew Genesis had done this to her. He took a step forward and she looked up finally seeming to notice them. At the same time she stumbled and he ran to her catching her before she could hit the ground.

She winced in pain and he loosened his grip on her hoping that he was not holding her too tightly. He heard her mind quiet suddenly as she passed out. He was so glad to see her, but he could not stop the tears. He felt horrible for allowing this to happen and he had not been there for her. He had not kept his promise to her. He could not protect her. He cried very silently and only Zack actually saw it. He felt bad for Sephiroth and he would not allow the MPs to see him, The General, cry.

They all waited. When Sephiroth was done he composed himself and then picked her up. He knew what he had to do before he could tend to her. He turned to Zack and handed her over to him. "I'm going ahead to take care of G. Take care of her." He said leaving them so they could not argue with him. He was gone before Zack could say anything.

Zack looked down at Lilia and knew that Sephiroth would be angry if he did not do as he asked. "Alright! We're going back to Shinra." He announced. They left and quickly headed up to the lab. Zack was thinking about what he was going to do. He wanted to go back and help Sephiroth. He also knew that he would be angry if someone were not there to watch over her. Even in this condition Hojo could do something stupid to her.

Once they got there and handed her over to Hojo he dismissed the MPs, but picked out one of them to babysit her. "Cloud. I have a favor to ask." Zack said outside of the lab. He nodded. "I want you to stay here and watch over her. I'm going to go back and help Sephiroth."

"Are you worried about him?" Cloud said sounding skeptical. Sephiroth was strong and he was confident that he could handle anything.

"It's not that. I just can't sit here doing nothing. Someone needs to watch out for her though. Hojo is not someone to trifle with. I'd feel better if you did this." He said. Cloud was surprised that he felt that way. For a while he was starting to feel like a failure. No one depended on him, but Zack was his best friend. If he trusted him enough for this he did not want to disappoint him.

"Ok. I can do that." He said smiling. Zack left feeling a lot better for not having left her alone with that sadistic scientist. He had to hurry up and catch up with Sephiroth. He also knew that Angeal was there too somewhere and he was hoping that he was alright.

**Author:** Well there you go. Lilia is ok and will be recovering for a while (physically and mentally). Angeal finally redeemed himself, but it isn't over yet. They still have to take care of G.


	45. Decisive Battle

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up.Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 45 Decisive Battle

"Finally, you arrive." Genesis said. "I take it you found her wandering around. Thank Angeal for that." He said nearly spitting it out. Angeal was sitting nearby against the railing. He looked a little beaten up. Sephiroth guessed that they had already had it out. He had done exactly what he said and gotten G away from her. For that he was grateful, but he still would not forgiven him.

"Why, G? Why did you do that to her?" Sephiroth said. He wanted to know and after that Genesis would pay. He was already having trouble staying calm. The only visible sign of that was his hand. Every now and then it would twitch slightly. G started off by just laughing.

"There are several reasons." He said turning around. He looked even crazier than he remembered. "You are one of them. It seems that everyone I know betrays me. There was a time when we were good friends. You remember that don't you?" Sephiroth nodded slightly.

"You strayed from that on your own. You have always gone a little too far with your ideas, G. That is why we are no longer friends." He replied. He knew G would never take that explanation, but that was the truth.

"No matter." He said shrugging. "Angeal too has betrayed me and more than once. He told, and he let her go." He said looking over at him. Angeal slowly got up. He used the rail for support and glared at Genesis. Sephiroth noticed that he was completely unarmed. It was a testament to how dangerous Genesis was becoming. They were a good match and normally G was not the victor.

"He did the right thing. That's something you should start doing…unless you would prefer to die." Sephiroth said. Again G laughed.

"I don't plan on dying. Not now. I still have much to do and things are very unfinished. If you just left here and let me be then one day soon…Shinra would be gone." He said.

"Maybe so, but then we would have another terror to deal with. I won't have it!" Sephiroth said. He really wanted Angeal to chime in a little for support. He could see that Genesis was working his way to a fight. He would definitely get one.

"Either way, G, someone won't be leaving here alive." Angeal said. He said it with total conviction. He was willing to die for this and Sephiroth could see it.

"You're right, Angeal." G said. He grinned and both of them knew what that meant. He did not intend to be the dead one. He drew his sword and so did Sephiroth. Angeal glanced behind him. He would have to get to his sword first. G could easily get to him before he reached it. He needed something and he hoped that Sephiroth would back him up until then. "I think one or both of you may die here today." He said readying his sword. It lit up as he activated the spell.

Angeal made for his sword while he did that hoping he would at least decide to be fair. He did not try to stop him. What kind of fight would it be if he had no weapon. Once he had what he needed he got ready. All of them were ready and they were going to make the first move. Genesis did not really make an attempt to attack them yet. Angeal and Sephiroth attacked at once without a word. Sephiroth attacked from the front. Angeal came in from behind.

G saw what they were trying to do so he maneuvered himself so that he could see them both and defend. Both strikes were powerful nearly knocking Genesis off balance. He did not let that show. He just braced himself for a better grip and held them back. Genesis was finding it very hard to push them back. Both of them seemed stronger than he remembered. Both of them were set on killing him for whatever reason.

He finally pushed them back and attacked Angeal first. Sparks flew off his sword when they hit. Angeal only had a little difficulty since he had already been beaten once. He had made sure to fix that with an elixir. However, he knew losing now would mean death. He was merely a distraction anyway. Sephiroth was nearby waiting. It was something he had relayed to him mentally. He was wondering if Genesis knew what they were planning.

Angeal had to start defending once G's attacks became quick and vicious. He did not really want to give Angeal much time to fight back. However, that did not inhibit him from using a spell or two. G was thinking much the same. While fighting him he could throw a spell too to catch him off guard. Angeal beat him to the punch and threw some fire into his face. It was distracting and painful enough to make him pause.

That was what Sephiroth had been waiting for. He leapt over to them and attacked. G defended at the last second sensing him. With his eyes in pain his mind was his only defense. He had to listen to Sephiroth's mind to defend until he could see again. He growled in anger and wiped his eyes. They gave him a few seconds to recover and then attacked again.

Sephiroth whirled around Angeal and got behind G before he realized it. Angeal forced him to stay there so Sephiroth would have a better shot at him, but G realized what was happening. He jumped away and ran trying to find another area for them to fight in. He wanted something that would be more difficult for them.

Along the way Sephiroth managed to catch up with him. Angeal lagged behind slightly. Sephiroth tried to force him to miss a step when he jumped up to a ledge. He cut it from the wall and G's weight made it fall more quickly than they both thought it would. That let Angeal catch up. G whirled around and viciously attacked Sephiroth while jumping to a safer spot. Angeal got in the way like he had done so many times before. This time there was one difference. He had more reason to want to kill G. He had deceived and used him while hurting his friends. It was very personal. He knew Sephiroth had a personal reason, but he felt he needed to do this to redeem himself.

Genesis could see that in his eyes. Sephiroth showed him a different side in this fight too. Normally he was so detached when he fought and when he did anything. He knew it was only because of her. He wished he could use that more to his advantage, but he would need her for that. They fought on for a while doing many of the same things echoing many of their previous fights. None of those had been like this. Then they were training and they had been friends, but now they were enemies and this was to the death.

After sometime they found themselves right back where they had started. Now it was more between Angeal and Genesis. Angeal was starting to push Sephiroth out of fighting him and he seemed fine with that. Angeal wanted it more. Sephiroth decided just to support him for now until he really needed help. He could see that both of them were starting to tire. The platform they were on was also starting to give way.

Sephiroth knew that soon it would fall and they would have to move somewhere else. Angeal and G seemed to be ignoring that fact. They continued fighting and it creaked and he noticed the bolts give way. He jumped away and told Angeal to do the same, but he did not listen. He chose to stay.

Both him and G fell and after a few swings G managed to knock Angeals sword away. It landed up on the platform by Sephiroth. He looked at it briefly and then went to the edge. There was a little time for them to get to safety, but Angeal would not take it and he would not let G either. He was willing to die to make sure G went with him. "Angeal!?" He heard Sephiroth shout down. He looked up at him and saw the understanding in his eyes. But he also saw that Sephiroth wanted him to live. He shook his head and focused on G. He was working on a way out of this, but Angeal grabbed his arm and forced him to stay past the point of no return.

Sephiroth watched them fall and then disappear without a trace. He could not feel them or find them down there. "They've disappeared." He said quietly. Behind him he heard footsteps. It was Zack. He had finally managed to get there after taking Lilia up to the lab.

"What happened?" He asked looking around.

"They're gone." He said. "Disappeared." Zack was a little unsure as to what he meant.

"What do you mean? Are they dead?" Zack asked.

"Hard to say, but I think we're done here. Let's go back." He said quietly thinking that he should have felt something when they died. Zack went to the edge and looked down wondering if he would see anything at all. He saw nothing that would explain and then left following Sephiroth. Before leaving he noticed Angeals sword and decided he could not just leave it behind. He took it with him as a memento of his mentor. He was sad that Angeal was gone now.

Once they were out the Turks met them. They did not even bother to ask what was going on. They were going to see Lilia. Faintly they heard the Turks talking about closing deepground completely and hiding the events. They still did not even know what had happened, but they both knew it would all be erased. Shinra was good at that. Making things go away whenever it was convenient.

Once they reached the lab they found Cloud there standing by the door. Sephiroth was a little surprised to see him there. He looked at Zack asking for an explanation. "I asked him to stay and watch over her. Thought it would be best having someone we can trust here." Zack said.

Sephiroth was a little glad for that. Someone had been watching over her at least. He did not say anything to him though. He was ready to see her right now. Zack did stop to talk to him asking him what he knew about her injuries and what Hojo had done. He knew Sephiroth would want to know later if anything funny had gone on. He also relayed that they had won, but he left out the fact that Angeal was dead. Most of the soldiers respected him a lot and he wanted to tell them all.

Sephiroth stood next to the table watching Hojo work. He wanted to snatch her up and leave so he could be with her. Hojo had already examined her and found the various bumps and bruises he could easily get rid of. After that he knew she would need a mako bath in order to recuperate faster. Sephiroth watched him like a hawk so he knew he could not screw up.

He had taken the time to talk to Zack, but after that Zack left and he returned to his observing. He was waiting for him to finish. He wanted some time with her. He wanted her to wake up so they could talk. He still really had no idea what had happened to her while she was there other than G had hurt her. He wanted details, but he was not really sure if she would be willing to tell him just yet. It might be too soon.

Hours later Hojo removed her from the mako bath and declared that he was done with her for today. Sephiroth took her down to the chamber and put her in her bed. He took his cover and gave it to her and then he sat down in front of the bed not wanting to disturb her. He wanted her to have the chance to rest peacefully for right now. Her body and mind were both resting right now so there was no talking to her. He just wanted to be near. Her aura felt different to him now. It was weaker than he remembered. It might just be because she is hurt. It felt soft and light. He just let his aura wash over her to make sure that she felt safe and warm. He did not go to sleep all night.

**Author:** Woohoo! That's finally over and she's mostly ok. I think ten chapters of it were more than enough. Angeal and G are gone now. Also don't forget Scythe and his gang. They are still there and she's back now so they might try to steal her away soon even though Siren already tried and failed. Also the title of this chapter is the name of a FF battle theme.


	46. Back once again

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up.

Ch. 46 Back once again

I had several dreams. Most of them were kind of frightening, but the last one was odd. I had not dreamt in a while so to me it was out of the ordinary. He was there, my mystery friend, but this time he felt like less of a mystery. He seemed sad, as if he had done something wrong and he was afraid to tell. He had his back turned to me and he was slightly looking back at me. There was something about it that seemed familiar. It felt so familiar that I could have sworn that I had seen him the other day. That was the feeling I got from it.

"It's been a while. You'll have to forgive me for being absent during your ordeal. I was unable to reach you." He said. He seemed to be very sorry about that.

"It's ok. Nothing we could do." I said. I could only say that because I knew it was a dream. It was not real so there was no pain. I felt fine now, but I knew that as soon as I woke up I would feel terrible. He was shaking his head.

"You're right. It's not the reason you think though." He said. I thought it was just because of G or maybe the fact that I was not really getting any sleep. At least, I was not getting a deep sleep. He shook his head as if to answer me. "I was there…in person." He said. I just stared at him even though I could see him so clearly I just could not figure out who he was. Somehow he was keeping me from knowing, or maybe I just do not want to for whatever reason. I went over to him, but he faded. "Not yet!" He said. "It's…not time for you to know."

"Know what?!" I shouted in the emptiness. He was gone and I never got an answer.

When I woke up I felt horrible. I felt a lot of the pain I remembered from before. I remembered a lot of it clearly enough. I remembered G and some of what he had done. I remembered hurting a lot because of him, but I also remembered that someone had carried me away from him. Even though they did not stay there with me. I did remember feeling strong arms around me before I passed out. I actually felt better in a strange way.

I had absolutely no idea how long I had been sleeping. I did not feel tired, but it was really hard to see. I knew that I wasn't alone. Someone else was there with me. For some reason I could not focus and so I could not tell who it was. I had an idea that it might be Sephiroth. I felt kind of stupid for not thinking it immediately, but at the moment my mind was a little slow. It took a minute or two to actually see him clearly. It also took him a moment or two for him to realize that I was awake. At first I had felt a little weary of him unable to identify him right off. I was still feeling a little afraid because of G.

When my vision cleared I saw that I was in the chamber once again. It felt kind of strange to be here once again. Sephiroth was leaning over me smiling. I wanted to smile back, but I just could not do it. "It's ok if you don't want to do anything right now. Don't feel bad. You're hurt and it's definitely going to take some time for you to heal." He said. "I'm fine with that."

"No you're not." I said sounding strange. My voice was hoarse and it hurt to speak. I coughed a few times trying to cover my mouth failed and Sephiroth ended up doing it for me. He had to wait for me to finish to say anything.

"Lilia, please. Don't talk right now. You really don't have to." He said. I could see it in his eyes. He was really worried about me and I could tell that he had been crying. I could never mistake the look in his eyes. It looked so strange on him though. I had never seen him cry and I never imagined I would. I honestly did not think it was possible for him to cry, but I guess I should have known better than that. Only someone without emotions would not be able to cry and he is not like that. I did understand what he was saying though. I could use our telepathy to talk to him.

_I know, but for a while I couldn't. I got use to talking out loud with Angeal. _I said. He cringed a little when I said that. I wondered why, but I did not really care that much. He just went on as if it were nothing. I guess he just does not want to worry me.

"You've been asleep for two days now. I was a little worried." He said stroking my hair. It felt really good to feel him do that again. It felt nice just to feel him touching me again. Although I kind of wanted to move away a little. It was strange for me. G had also done things like that and I just could not shake that feeling. Sephiroth seemed to notice and he stopped. "Does that bother you?" He asked leaning back a little.

_It's not that. It's just that..._ I paused not really knowing what to say. How to explain what I had felt so all I could do was let him feel it too. He shuddered a little bit at that.

"I'm sorry." He said. He paused for a moment. I guess he was trying to think of something comforting to say, but he was never really good with words. Usually what he said was not really what ended up making me feel better. "He can't hurt you again." He said with conviction. I just looked at him curiously. "He's dead. Angeal...made sure of that." He said. I had heard the pause there. It made me wonder what else was there.

_Sephiroth? Is there something I should know? _I said. He shook his head. _Seph!_ I shouted back as loud as I could. I saw him wince ever so slightly.

"Angeal is dead. They both are." He paused for a moment. "There is something else. I don't know if you're aware of it." He said. I gave him a questioning look, but most of my attention had gone to the part where he said Angeal was dead. "Angeal kidnapped you. He handed you over to Genesis." He said with anger in his voice. It seemed that even though he was dead he still hated him for that. I understood, but now that I knew he was dead it seemed kind of stupid.

_You shouldn't feel that way. He's dead now and he did help me a lot._ I said. That really only seemed to make it worse though.

"If he had said something sooner...then you wouldn't be hurt like this." He said lowering his head. I knew it was just because he did not want me to see his face right now. "He never should have taken you to him. He should have come to me. That would have been better." He said. He only seemed to get angrier.

_Seph...please stop! You're scaring me. _I said looking away. He seemed to pause completely. I felt him lightly lay his head down on my chest.

"Losing you was hard. I thought I might never see you again. I felt so lost without you." He said. I could only guess that he was right. I was frightened most of the time and I was starting to lose my mind. I looked at him and I could see him putting his arms around me. He was trying to compose himself, but it seemed that holding it all in was too hard now.

_Seph…it's ok. I'm fine now. _I said. He began burying his face in my chest. I was not really fine. I had been having nightmares while I was sleeping and I knew that I would only have more nightmares. _I need you right now, Seph. Please…._

That seemed to help him a little bit. He calmed down some and we sat in silence for a while. Neither of us felt like talking too much. We just sat there thinking and listening to one another breath. A few hours later Zack came by to see me. He looked a bit relieved to see me awake now. He sat on Sephiroth's bed, but did not say much at first. It did not seem like he knew what he wanted to say. I was tired even though I had been sleeping for a while and Seph had looked tired too.

"It's good to see you're doing better now." He said. I was still lying down and Sephiroth was still sitting on the floor. "I was starting to get a little worried about you." He paused for a moment letting a short awkward silence fill it. "I have a girlfriends now!" He said proudly. I wanted to say something, but Seph would not let me right now. All I could do was smile a little. "Her name is Aeris, she lives in the slums." He said. "When you're better…I think maybe we should all go on a double date or something. You could meet her and get out of here for a little while." He said.

Seph and I were a little skeptical about how that was going to work. After everything that happened Hojo was definitely not going to allow something like that to happen. I doubt that even Shinra would allow that. Zack was also thinking of that. He knew that they would be keeping a closer eye on me now. He was also thinking about repeating what they had done before. He honestly did not care right now if he got punished for that.

He looked down at the time and jumped up. "Crap! I'm suppose to go on duty right now." He said starting to leave. "I'm glad you ok now. It's good seeing you back." He said before making a hasty exit.

"He was pretty worried. I guess he told her all about you too." Seph told me. I smiled at that. It was nice that they had gotten together, but I could not help think of what was going to happen to them. I hoped that somehow it could be avoided, but from the way things were going it did not look that way to me.

_I'm glad he found someone. He seems to be happy with her. You're happy with me right? _I said. He nodded.

"I love you, Lilia. I will always be happy with you." He said. He leaned forward to kiss me, but I moved away from him. He ended up kissing my cheek. He seemed a little surprised, but he said nothing. He just sat back down.

_I'm sorry. I just…can't._ I told him. He looked at me and smiled as if there was nothing wrong.

_It's ok. I understand. You've been through a lot and it's going to take some time._ He assured me. I felt tired and wanted to go to sleep, but we got more visitors. I said nothing the whole time. Seph did all the talking. Usher and Sheila had come in to see me. Usher looked tired and worn out. I could see it was because of Mirrin. He still had not found her. He did not say much, but seemed glad to see me back. Sheila was much more animated about it.

"I'm so glad that you're back! I really missed you and so did a lot of people." She said. I felt sure that she would have tried to hug me had Sephiroth not been in the way. She had brought us all something to eat, but no one even bothered to try it. None of us were in the mood for that. She kept talking and every now and then Usher would say something. She left and he lingered a little bit, but said nothing for a long time.

"I have a question, Lilia. I know this may not be the best time, but I just need to know." He said pausing for a few moments. I knew what he was going to ask. I had thought about it. Sephiroth seemed to understand and he really wanted Usher to wait, but even he could see how hard it was for him just to ask the question. It was very important to him and Sephiroth completely understood. "Was Mirrin there? Did you see her?" He asked. I was not really sure if I should answer.

_Seph, what do I say to him? She was there, but I never saw her. He can't bring her back. She wouldn't even recognize him now._ I said sort of in a panic. He said nothing, but decided to answer for me.

"I think it is a little too soon for things like that. She just woke up a few hours ago." Sephiroth said. "Can you wait a few more days?" He asked him. Usher looked at him and seemed to find him very sincere.

"I suppose I can, but I just wanted to try. You understand." He said before leaving. He paused at the door, but then kept going. I gave a sigh of relief. I really had no idea how I was going to explain that he would never see her again.

_Thank you, Seph. I don't know what to say to him._ I said.

"Don't worry. We can talk about it before he comes back. Maybe then you or I can explain." He said.

_Seph. Come lay down. _I said. He shook his head. I knew why. He was afraid of hurting me, but I was going to be persistent about it. _Please, Seph. I really need you beside me._ I was hoping that I would feel better if he did that. Having him sitting on the ground like that was not really close enough as far as I was concerned. I felt a little detached from him right now and I needed to make that connection again.

**Author:** Well, there…she's awake and of course tired, hurting, all of the things you'd expect afterward. She's a little weary of some things and so is Seph. Of course, things are going to go a little bit slow, but it'll pick back up after a few chapters. It will also slowly further the plot of the story.

Now that G is gone and that part is over there are some things that can be addressed like who her father is, Scythe and his gang and what they want. I know that even though you know what they're doing you still doing know why. I'll get to that too. There is also something else to note and I'm fairly sure that no one has noticed it. Remember when all that weird stuff was happening. You know, things disappearing, the T-rexaur appearing out of nowhere. That stuff hasn't been happening for a long time now. There is a reason for that.


	47. Bad Tidings

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 47 Bad Tidings

After a long check up Hojo decided that we were done. We were allowed to do pretty much whatever we wanted for the rest of the day. I felt stiff so I held onto Sephiroth when I walked around. The first thing we did was go to the cafeteria. I felt like I was starving even though I knew that was not true. I guess the food I got there just was not good enough. Sephiroth did notice and made sure to get enough food. He filled up the whole plate.

That meant I got to sit at the table and wait for him. I could see that I was getting looks, but no one tried anything. For the first time they all seemed too afraid to approach me. I was kind of relieved by that. I really did not want to have to deal with that today. The food looked good and I dived in. I felt kind of like a pig. Sephiroth said nothing about it. We did not really talk much there. Once we were done we left and went for a walk, but stopped once I got tired.

I really thought that was annoying. Walking around should not make me feel like I just exercised for a few hours. We were near his office so he decided we should go there and take a break. Mainly he meant for me. I knew that he still had work to do. Apparently he had been ignoring it for a few months. I was a little surprised by the stacks of papers. "Wow, Seph. That's really bad." I said laughing.

"It wasn't a priority." He said shrugging. He pulled out the chair for me and let me sit in it. There was another chair, but his was a lot nicer. He sat in the other one and looked through a pile for a while. He sat there frowning most of the time. It just made me smile, but after a while I was starting to feel tired. I knew I fell asleep when I woke up back in the chamber. I guess once he noticed he moved me. "Have a nice nap?" He asked smiling at me. I just nodded and snuggled up to him a little closer.

"I didn't want to go to sleep like that."

"It's ok. You'll be that way for a little while." He said. I guess he knew more about it than I did right now. He always made sure to talk to Hojo right after a check up. I guess he was just making sure that something was not wrong with me. "Just try to take it easy. If you feel tired just tell me." He said. "For right now I'm stationed here…until I finish all that work."

"How long will that take?" I just could not imagine that getting done in a few days or even in a week. He just shrugged.

"I don't really care how long it takes. It ensures that I get to stay here with you. That way I won't have to worry about you as much." He said. I understood. He did not want to leave me right now. If they suddenly decided that he should leave I am sure he would fight to stay.

"I think we should talk about that now." I said. He shook his head. "Yes." He sighed knowing what I meant. I wanted to know what we were going to do when Usher came by again. I really did not want to wait forever. I wanted to tell him. "I want to tell him. If it were you I'd want to know."

"I know you'll end up telling him somehow, but do it gently. He's a little fragile right now." He said. I knew he was right. I could see it when he came before. He was so near the breaking point. It was really sad and I just wanted to end it, but I really did not want to hurt him more. "He wants to know. I think he hasn't even thought that she could be different or even dead. Us finding you gives him a little hope that maybe she's alive as well."

"I suppose not. When I tell him she was there…I don't know if he'll want to hear anymore. If he doesn't then what?" Sephiroth just shook his head.

"Expect that reaction. You'll just have to make sure he gets to hear it all. If not I'll make sure he does." I nodded. Sheila came in and brought us dinner. We went to sleep right after that. I just felt so exhausted.

Then next day we went up early for a checkup. I noticed that aid again. I was starting to wonder if she would ever go away. I still did not like her at all. The looks she gave me were bothersome. Sephiroth seemed to be acting a little weary of her. He never answered when I asked about it though. She did look a little different now though. I could not place it, but there was something different. It looked like she was trying to be on her best behavior, but I had no idea why.

We went right back to the chamber. We sat there and it did not take long for me to fall asleep once again. He woke me up arguing with Usher. I knew what it was about. Sephiroth did not want him to bother me at the moment since I was sleeping. "I know it is difficult, but you have to understand. She is still trying to recover. You can wait in here for her to wake up, but not now."

"Why are you yelling?!" I said turning over to face them. I rubbed my eyes a little to see them better. Both of them froze and looked at me.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Sephiroth said. Usher sat down. He seemed to want to say more, but I guess he could not figure out what it was. He sat down as well and I sat up.

"Lilia. I can't wait anymore. I want to know." He paused for a moment. "Was she there?" I hesitated to tell him anything, but I knew that I had to. We were friends and I just felt so bad for him. Not knowing was killing him.

"Yes." He hardly heard the words before he jumped up going to the door. "But that's not all!" I said. He paused and looked back at me.

"There's more?" I nodded. He stepped back from the door a little and waited.

"If you were to find her down there…you wouldn't be able to take her home." That definitely got his attention. He was afraid of what I had to say next. I was almost afraid of it too. I was wondering how I should tell him. "G was doing experiments on them. Mirrin…she…isn't there anymore. She…." I paused unsure how to explain. He seemed to understand though.

He just sat down stunned. He slowly put his head in his hands and began weeping uncontrollably. _Seph! What do we do now?_

_He needs to let it out. I'm sure he thought he might never see her again. Now he needs to deal with it in his own way. We might only make things worse._ He said.

Usher sat there for several minutes before he looked up at us again. "I'm sure that must have been hard to say. It's hard to hear." He said shaking a little. "I was afraid we might not get her back. I know Shinra will just cover it up. I just wish they hadn't got to lose her." He said talking about his two children. I had hardly even thought about that. I did not have to tell them she was never coming back. I wondered how he was going to explain it to them.

I did understand what they might feel. I had lost quite a few family members, my mother included, before coming here. It was hard to hear. Besides the fact that I knew he was coming for me and there really was not much I could do. I had sat in shock. "I'm sorry. It hurt to see her like that." I told him remembering how I felt when I found out.

He just nodded and then left quickly. I guessed that he was going to go home and mourn for a while. Then he would have to tell his kids. It only made me feel worse about it. I wished that we could help him, but I doubt that he would even want that right now. Sephiroth and I sat there with him comforting me. Now I was ready to cry just because it was so sad. It brought up a lot of things for me and gave me even more reason to cry.

Sephiroth let me cry on his shoulder, but he chose not to say anything. I really did not want him to. I just needed to cry and it was not just for this. I was crying for the time I had spent in deepground. At the time I could hardly deal with it. I was drugged a lot and spent most of the time in a daze. Sephiroth held me to him tightly enough to really help me feel better. After about five minutes I started to feel a little better. I was crying less and had started to sniffle.

Sephiroth just waited for me to finish and smiled at me when I finally raised my head. "Better?" He asked. I nodded and wiped my nose. The only thing I hate about crying is it makes your nose run. Sephiroth just smiled at it and helped me wipe my face.

"Thanks. I guess I needed to cry." I said sniffling. Sephiroth just put his arm around me and pulled me close to him. He felt so warm to me at the moment. "Seph, I…." He stopped me.

"I don't think you should do that now. It's only been a few days."

"I know, but I want to talk about it." I told him. He frowned a little. Maybe he was afraid of what I had to say. Or maybe he just did not want to hear all of the things Genesis had done to me. I knew he was curious. "I'll have to talk about it eventually and I don't want to tell anyone else." I said shaking my head a little.

"Alright, but go slow. Just the beginning for today." He said. I nodded and got ready. If I was going to recount the first day or two there I was going to get comfortable. I started with what happened during the attack. I had been afraid since I could not control myself. He seemed to understand completely. "Hojo, has done that to me as well. It's not a pleasant feeling."

I went on to when I woke up and I was watching his hands. When I mentioned the way G touched me his hands tensed. He was careful that he did not hurt me though. I told him about the mako treatments he gave me as well. The marks were almost gone now since I had had some mako baths. I could still feel the needle and the burning sensation that had spread throughout my body. It had felt cold, almost like ice, but it stung like needles. I shivered remembering it and Sephiroth did as well. He was in my mind trying to see it as I remembered. Hearing it sometimes was just not enough. I was hesitating to bring up anything, but I knew I had to.

We both decided it was enough. He was staring at the ground expressionless. I could tell that he was angry. His mind was on fire and there was the visible twitch in his hand. The memories were a little fresh for me so I sat there holding onto him for comfort. At the moment he seemed a little lost. He returned to reality when Sheila arrived with our food. She told us that she made it. She had been doing that a lot lately. I guess she feels that is the only way she can help me right now.

"I think you should wait a while before telling me more." He said when we were done eating. "I think I need you to do that." I nodded. It sounded like the right idea from his reaction and the way telling it made me feel. I finished and he went to take care of it. I heard what sounded like him punching a hole in the wall before he returned. I said nothing, but he acted as if nothing had happened.

"Are you ok?" I said after a while. He nodded. "I heard what you did."

"I know." He said sighing. "There is little I can do to let out my feelings. Someone would get hurt." He said.

"You could train by yourself for a while." I said. "I think you need to."

"I'm not going to leave you in here by yourself." He said. I knew exactly what he was thinking. "I don't trust the guards to protect you. Especially when they hardly stopped the rebels from making it this far." He said frowning.

"I'll be fine. Just train for an hour." I said. I heard what he was thinking. _That's more than enough time to lose you again._ "I could go with you…if that would make you feel better." I told him. He stared at me for a long time before nodding. I would have to change clothes first. Everything was still here. All of my things were hidden away under the bed and Sheila had taken some of it, but just to store for me.

Once I was ready we left heading for the battle arena. Sephiroth made sure to change it to a more pleasant environment for me. It was outside of Midgar near where we had taken our picnic. He made a bench for me to sit on and made sure it was warm for me. Even though we were here for him he seemed to be trying hard to make it for me. He sat down for a moment before doing anything. He wanted to make sure I would be ok. I was only there as an observer.

He was trying to make sure that none of the monsters could attack me. He was going to fight barehanded. Said it would be the most helpful for him right now. It meant he was going to rip the monsters apart. I told him I probably was not going to watch for very long. Once he got started I could see that this was a good idea for him. He was taking down some very powerful monsters at the moment. None of them seemed to even see me. It was like I was invisible to them. I guessed that he had done that. It seemed he could not see me either, but he was very aware of me.

After watching a few fights I had to stop watching him. It was good for him, but not for me. I laid down on the bench and closed my eyes waiting for him to wake me. It only took a few minutes for me to go to sleep. I woke up to him carrying me. I had suddenly felt warmer and the change woke me. "You're done?" He nodded. "Do you feel better now?" He nodded and smiled at me.

"I'm sorry I dragged you there with me, but I'm just not comfortable leaving you in Shinra's care. They are not exactly trustworthy." He said. We got in the elevator and he sat me down. It stopped a few floors away from ours and Reno and Rude got in. Neither of them said anything, but I did notice the looks I was getting from Reno. It is hard to tell if Rude is or now. He always has sunglasses on. Sephiroth must have cause he was glaring at Reno. I frowned and leaned against him for support. It stopped on our floor and we got out, but I noticed Reno checking me out. I smiled a little thinking it was funny. Sephiroth said nothing, but he did notice. "I don't think he's dumb enough to do anything, Seph. He knows what you'd do." I said once we were back in the chamber. I was laughing slightly at his reaction. It actually made me feel better to laugh like that. I had not done it in so long it felt kind of awkward though.

"He knows better than to do that."

"You do it." I said raising an eyebrow. That seemed to catch him off guard. "You're both guys and I get looks from most of the men here. As long as no one grabs my ass I don't care. It's a compliment…sometimes." I said thinking that there were a few people I'd rather not have staring at me. He was thinking along the same lines, but he did not want anyone staring at me. I had to smile at him for feeling that way. It just meant that he really cared.

"Do you think I'm too jealous?" He asked me. I shook my head.

"Not really. I don't mind it." I said changing. After that I made him lie down so I could lie beside him again like before. "I love you." I whispered before going to sleep. I hardly heard him repeat it. I could feel his aura washing over me once again for added comfort.

**Author:** Ok, so the healing has begun. Poor Usher! I sort of wanted to cry while writing it. That tidbit of Reno and Rude just kind of slipped into this chapter. I totally wasn't going to write them it, but then I did. There really is not reason for it.

I totally did not want to update so late in the week, but school is now being way too frustrating. I was so aggrivated I almost forgot about this. I don't know if I'll update next week at all or not. If I do yay if not then you won't be seeing anything for two weeks. I'm not going to update the week after next cause that is our break and I probably won't write anything then. We're having to move because the school housing is gay!!!!!!! I want to yell at them or hit them. This is a time when I wished my characters were around to do my bidding cause Glaed would definitely come in handy.


	48. The War is almost over

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Sorry I didn't update last week. My schedule is all fucked up and we were still trying to get settled into our new apartment. I'm only at school on Thursday and Friday from 8-5. I get the feeling it's going to be more hectic than I want it to be. You should expect me to update on those days.

Also since I did not update I decided to give you guys a little bonus! So enjoy.

Ch. 48 The War is almost over

I woke up feeling a little better. It's been a little over a month since they found me. So far not much has happened since. From what Sheila says the war seems to be dying down now. It could end soon. In a way I sort of felt uneasy about it. I knew that it meant a lot of different things. For one thing Shinra was going to win and that would start up Avalanche soon after. It could also lead into the events of the game even though that's years away. From my standpoint it just seems like things are not really changing.

Sephiroth seemed kind of glad that the war might be coming to an end, but I really don't know why. Sitting around here with me is not really helping him at all. He does not like the quiet life at all. He tries not to show it, but he wants to be out there fighting. He cannot sit idle for very long. That is why we do so much during the day. He needs to stay busy. I am exactly the opposite. I can just sit around not really doing anything. I might get bored, but that does not exactly motivate me to go and do something.

Since we are out and about a lot during the day I get tired a lot. It also means doing things that he wants to do while I sleep. That only bothers me sometimes. I feel like he knows I am going to get tired and picks things he likes. I know he does not really mean anything by it though. I know he does it because I get tired and it gives me time to rest. It just does not always feel that way.

After a lengthy check up Hojo let us go on our merry way, but all we ended up doing was going to the cafeteria, eating, and then going to sleep. Sephiroth wanted to do something, but I just did not feel up to it that day.

We both started to noticed how busy the building use to be. Now we hardly saw anyone in the building. It was a testament to how things were going with the war and otherwise. Normally there were so many people it was a little difficult to get around without bumping into someone. Now things were much calmer. I guess it is because of the war dying down. I was also noticing the Turks a lot more now. Whenever we went somewhere they were there. Normally there were three or four scattered through the floors. I did notice that they were following us though. It was easy to see when the same four faces suddenly appeared a few floors after we first saw them. They were really making the effort now!

When it was my birthday again Sheila threw me a party in the cafeteria. It was off limits to most for a while. She made sure that only certain people were there. I had no idea what was going on, but Sephiroth did. He dragged me there just after evening when my exam was over. I had noticed Sheila's absence, but it was normal. When we got there the lights were off; a clear sign that something was off. Then the lights came on and they shouted, "Surprise!". I was definitely surprised. Zack was there and so was Cloud. I guess he invited him. Usher and his family was there. Some of the Turks were even there, but that was mostly as protection and to keep people out, although Reno and Rude did join in. Rufus was there, but he made sure to keep his distance. I guess I rejected him just enough times and besides that Sephiroth latched himself to me. There would be no separating us.

It was a nice party, but it also made me wish that Angeal were there too. I really missed him.

There were balloons, music, games to play, (I just watched most of the time), and of course cake. When it was time for that everyone sat down at the table and lit the candles. Now it was time to make a wish. At first I could not think of anything. The only wish I could think of was that things did change in a positive way. Meaning that Sephiroth lives and does not go crazy and we avoid all that end of the world stuff somehow. For whatever reason it just seemed like a lot to ask. Mainly I just wanted Sephiroth to live in the end. After I blew out the candles I felt someone else there. I was not really sure who it could be, but I chose to ignore it. If I let it bother me it could show and they might notice. I really just want everyone to be happy for right now and not worry.

Of course, after the food was all gone it was time to open presents. There were more there than I normally got. I guess it meant everyone there got me something. Sephiroth did mention that he would give me his afterward when we were alone. Most of them were things like clothes, sketch pads, pencils, jewelry, and Usher gave me some nice new gunblades. I could not possibly take them all so Sheila offered to hold onto them for me and if I wanted something all I had to do was ask.

Once the party was over everyone left. We were all a little tired, but everyone walked away with a smile at least. It made me feel a little better about things. Back in the chamber it was time for Sephiroth to give me his present. I was not sure what it was going to be at all. He was blocking my thoughts for the moment so I could not take a peek at it.

"Alright, close your eyes for a moment." He said. I did knowing he would not give it to me otherwise. I felt something cold touch my skin around my neck. That was a dead giveaway. _A necklace?_ "Now you can look." He said. I looked and it was a locket. It was not the typical heart shape that you would expect though. It was a diamond shape instead. It was very pretty though. "Open it." He whispered.

There were pictures on the inside. I looked at them funny since I did not remember them being taken at all. The first one was just him. I had to admit that he looked nice in it. He did not look angry like he did in most pictures. He actually looked happy and he was smiling; something I personally liked to see. The other one had us both. Obviously I was asleep and he was holding me giving me a kiss on the cheek. Seeing that made me smile. It was honestly the best present I had ever gotten from anyone.

"When did you do this?"

"Recently. I really didn't know what to give you. I still have that one gift, but it should wait. Now would be too soon to give you that." He said looking away slightly. I had actually forgotten about that present, but I remembered when he said that. I was still curious about that and why he wanted to wait for so long. To me it was a little silly. "I got the idea from Zack."

"You seem to get a lot of ideas from him, but at least this one was a good one." I said poking a little fun at some of the trouble he has gotten everyone in. Sephiroth nodded. He could not deny that some of those ideas were not the best.

"I suppose it's because he has a girlfriend too and has to shop for her. It's just harder for me. I never really know what to get you...I just know what you like, but sometimes...I just want them to be more than just clothing or jewelry." He said. "I want them to really mean something."

"This one does. It means a lot." I said. I leaned against him and closed my eyes for a moment sighing. "I really think it's the best present I've ever gotten." I said. I knew that made him feel good about it. He put his arms around me and held me tight for a few minutes. When he was done with that he kissed me on the head. He laid down and closed his eyes I guess expecting me to be ready to go straight to sleep. I really was not quite ready for that. I kissed him feeling kind of bad that I had been avoiding it for two months. He seemed mildly surprised, but that was gone quickly enough. It really just felt good to do that. It had been a while.

"I see you've gotten over that." He said. Two months of turning away and he never said a word. He just took it in stride. I nodded feeling silly for it, but he shook his head. "I do understand how hard it is for you right now. In two months you've hardly even told me anything, but even from that I can tell that it was painful and not just what he was doing to you." I understood what he was saying. It was hard to hear all of those people in there. It was especially hard to hear them suddenly silent when G started experimenting on them. There was nothing I could do about it and it hurt. "Lets just forget that right now and go to sleep." He said. I just nodded and laid down beside him.

The next day he got orders to leave for Wutai. Shinra was getting ready to crush them in one swift blow. Godo had formed a strong enough army to really pose a threat so now they were going to send Sephiroth and just have him annihilate them. He was only going to be gone for a few days. Five to eight to be exact. He frowned at the paper not really wanting to go at all. Personally he had nothing against them. Unfortunately, orders were orders and he had to obey them. These were the first real orders he had gotten in a while according to him.

"So what are you going to do?" I asked him. He shook his head and sighed.

"I have to go, but I don't want to leave you here by yourself." He said frowning even more. "The only thing I can think of is to ask Zack. It doesn't look like they're calling him to go." He said thoughtfully. Then he got up and left saying he would be back soon. That left me sitting there by myself for about half an hour. I could tell that he was keeping tabs on me though. I was watching him too. Mainly it was just because I did not really have much else to do. When he came back he said it was taken care of, but he was still frowning.

"You're going to have to stop doing that." I said. I could not handle him frowning the whole time he was there. "When do you have to leave?"

"Tonight. Zack'll be here then." He said.

"He's ok with doing this?" He just nodded.

"Said he'd be happy to." He replied. "I'll try to come back as soon as I can though. I don't really feel comfortable leaving you here."

"Don't worry. I'll be fine." I said trying to reassure him. I really did not want him to worry about me the whole time. That would not exactly be good for when he is fighting. It could be a bad thing. I was really worried that he was going to do something stupid and get hurt. It seemed a little unlikely, but he was acting very different now. Like leaving me here would kill him. All I could do was hold onto him until Zack arrived. He seemed fine with that.

Zack came in and went straight for the empty bed. He looked a little tired. He waved to Sephiroth and then laid down closing his eyes. Sephiroth did not seem too happy to see that right away, but he did trust him enough to leave. He was going to be late as it were already. He gave a kiss goodbye and then left very hesitantly.

Zack did not really move for a while and I did notice the fact that he was snoring a little bit. I just shook my head glad that Sephiroth had him for a friend. It was getting kind of late anyway so I just went to bed too.

In the morning Sheila woke us up. She was a little surprised to find Zack there with me. She figured it out pretty quick though and left to get him something to eat as well. "Morning." I said to him. He just nodded rubbing his eyes.

"Sorry, yesterday was a hard day." He said. "They're working me harder than usual right now."

"Why did you want to do this then?"

"Because he asked me!" He said quickly. "You're my friends. I care about you. I know how much you two love each other." He said. We had to pause our conversation for a few moments when Sheila came in. She did not stay long though and he continued. "I'd feel the same way if I were in his position…anyone would." He said.

"I guess. It just seems like we're asking a lot." He shook his head.

"Not at all. I'm glad to help." He said spitting out food. I laughed at him a little. He just looked so silly at the moment. His hair was a mess, he looked tired, and most of the food was not making it into his mouth.

"I'm glad. You're a good friend, Zack." I said finishing my breakfast.

The rest of the day I was kind of bored. Either Zack had to go with me all of the time or I had to go with him. It was a little different from spending the day with Sephiroth. I realized just how many things he had been ignoring to be with me since I knew they had some of the same duties. Zack spent a lot of his time training new recruits. Part of me wanted to tell them to leave, that Shinra was a liar and they should not work there. However, I had my own little Turk watching my every move. Today it was Reno.

The past month I had been doing something I normally did not do. I was actually wearing normal clothing instead of the normal hospital gown. Today I was wearing the first outfit Sephiroth had bought me. I did notice a few stares, but there was the ever-present stare of Reno. I could feel him watching me and it was actually annoying me.

He never came close to me or anything like that. I spent most of the time watching Zack train them and part of me wished I could join them, but I was not allowed. Hojo had yet to clear me for any of that. I was starting to miss training with Usher, but I had heard he was working a lot less now. Sheila told me he was thinking very hard about either quitting or retiring. Whichever was less of a headache. Either way I would miss him.

Zack noticed and tried to get me to participate, but with someone watching there was no way. Hojo could ask anything and find out. Then he would just punish me for it. I did not really want that so I was going to say no. I did notice that Reno was suddenly absent. He had moved away and was standing closer to the door looking away. I looked in his mind to see what he was doing. _He's going to ignore me for now so I can actually do something? Nice!_

"Maybe a little." I said. None of it was very hard, but I did not want to strain myself so Hojo would have to ask about it. Zack seemed happy to see me doing something. It was easy and it actually felt nice to get some more physical exorcise. When I stopped I was not out of breath, but I was tired. Even after two months I still got tired too easily. That alone was enough to bother me. Zack noticed and he helped me back up to the chamber.

Hojo was waiting and he just stood there tapping his foot as if we were late or something. He frowned at us and grabbed my arm walking me over to the elevator. Zack followed frowning and semi-glaring at Hojo, who seemed to be in a foul mood today. It was just an examination. He did everything himself glaring at the aids and Zack though he had not done anything to deserve it. I was really starting to wonder what was bothering him so much. It was strange to actually feel his anger like this.

In his mind there was a lot of technical things, but the foremost thought was about the female aid. She had done some sort of test wrong and now he was stuck redoing it. It had also reminded him of something else. Something he had read. It was a letter someone had sent her and it made her sound like a spy or something. That only served to remind me that she was an enemy. I had almost forgotten about all of that for a while. Being hurt, tired, and sick had done a number on my memory and me. Then again, I had six months to forget her.

When Hojo was done he sent me on my way and then proceeded to yell at her. We got to hear everything. She just stood there looking down, but I did notice how she clenched her fist and shook. Part of her wanted to retaliate, but she just could not do that. Part of me wanted to see her do it, but then what would she do? Thinking of that made me glad she did nothing.

In the chamber Zack and me talked about it a little thinking that it was a little strange, but Hojo was always a little odd. When we went to sleep I heard Sephiroth talking to me. He was just telling me goodnight. I returned it and then went straight to sleep hoping everything turned out ok.

**Author:** Again…sorry for not updating, but as I said before you're getting a bonus. I decided you deserved another chapter, but it's strickly going to be about the baddies. You're going to learn a lot about them, or rather one of them, in one chapter. I think this is how I want to talk about their past since I realized making another story was not really going to work. Some of them just don't have an interesting enough story and I can't drag it out long enough so I kind of gave up, but I'll just use what I wrote for that in here somehow. Before this story is done you'll know pretty much everything about them even if I just tag it all on the end.


	49. Bonus!

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

**Bonus chapter!**

The mysterious Enshii

_(Author: One thing that should be made clear. He is from FF4. I don't remember if I mentioned it or not. That was my intention anyway even though he looks more like a FF7 character. He was the third person to join Scythe.) _

Enshii started out bad. When he was old enough he killed his parents feeling that they were only getting in his way. He did enjoy doing it though. The blood, the screams, the anguish in their eyes as he did it; he liked the look of it all. His mother had died first. She had set off his rage. It was not really something they had provoked, but he was a strange child. It was something they had noticed since the day he was born. He was an evil child.

She looked at him that morning looking disappointed. He really did not know why she looked that way. The thought had occurred to him before that maybe he should kill them, but today it was more than a thought. It was so clear in his mind that he was silently calling his puppet before he even realized it. Once he did he saw no reason to stop it. He let it come up behind her and give her a nice shock. She turned to it and screamed not really knowing what it was. She looked over at her son who only smiled devilishly.

"What is this?!" She said to him. Enshii did not answer her. He merely told the puppet to kill her with a mere thought. This particular puppet had blades extending from his fingers. They were so sharp they cut her skin as soon as they touched. "Enshii, stop!!" She yelled as the puppet put the blades in her chest. She screamed and that finally brought his father into the room. He ran in wondering what was going on. What he found shocked him.

"What are you doing, boy?" He said in shock. Enshii turned his head towards him still wearing the same smile.

"I just had to, father, you both begged for it." He said sounding strange.

"What's the matter with you?" He said. He watched his wife die before his eyes. It was almost more than he could bear. He ran to her side and held her. Enshii just watched his father weep over her as he cursed him. "You've killed her!" He repeated. "Monster!"

The words meant nothing to him. Even at his age when most children were still so dependent on their parents he hated them both. He felt that they were truly in the way and that they deserved to be killed. He knew that others would follow them and that this would be a large part of his life. It was a moment where he knew he was not quite himself.

He motioned for the puppet wait and watch. He removed the blades from the puppet and put them on himself. He liked them as a weapon. Right now they were dripping with his mothers blood and now he would add his fathers to them as well. He was literally going to stab him in the back. It was fitting enough since he now saw the man that he was. He was weak and the weak would die while the strong survived. He had to be strong. When he was finished he stood there starring at them for a moment. He felt himself returning to normal, but he had no regrets. He did not feel bad for killing them even though he should. He was free of them.

Those living in that small town were shocked to learn of what he had done. The shock really was short lived since he had turned the puppet on some of them as well. Mainly it was anyone in his way no matter what they were trying to do. Some wanted to help him and some wanted to get rid of him in fear. He got rid of them all. He had to.

His ability allowed him to see things no one else could. He could see wandering souls. There were many of them just floating around lost. He knew it was just a transitioning from their bodies to death, but it was something he could use. He knew from his studies his parents made him do that there was a way to attach a soul to something physical. He just decided to use his puppets as the physical object.

He was ten when he killed them.

It had taken longer to force the soul into the puppet then it was to make it. Some souls were stronger than others and could resist, but he was still young and new at the art. Over time it became easier, but he did not make more puppets. For now the one was more than enough. The soul was a skilled fighter so he could make it fight his battles and make his kills easily enough. This soul of course did not fight him as others might. It simply did not care what happened to it.

Once he was older around sixteen or seventeen he joined a small mercenary group after a long time of being a lone mercenary. He soon realized that having a group made more money. They could either split up or work together giving them more diversity in their jobs. It was far more profitable than being alone, but he did have to prove to them his worth. It was something their leader expected. They were the best and only took in the best.

He did realize he would be the youngest, but he no longer looked his age. Over the years he had gotten plenty of scars of his own and had been forced to grow up a lot. He had learned to become very calculating about whatever he was doing. Before even attempting to join this group he learned all he could about them. He even took the time to observe them to see what they were like.

They were going to test him by fighting him. He did as he normally would. Since he had already seen how each of them fought he made sure that his puppet could handle most of them. He also had to make sure that if they were to get past the puppet he could handle them. He did not want to be embarrassed by losing. It was not an option.

There were seven in the group not counting the leader. She watched them fight and was very silent most of the time. She was content to watch knowing that everyone in the group understood there role and what was to happen. They had to know their boundaries and if they faltered they were severely punished. Enshii could see that a few of them were missing a finger or had some other permanent injury.

Once he had beaten the first three with his puppet things started to get harder. He knew they were the most skilled of the group. Only one of them stood by watching. He knew this person was not a fighter, but rather took care of the group financially. He did not worry about him at all. Right now he could see his puppet was having some difficulty with them. He decided to step in and keep one distracted to help it out. He did not really want to see it fall.

The strategy worked and he noticed the improvement. A few minutes later one of them was down and now there were only two left to deal with. They decided to team up and he guessed they were going to both target him or his puppet. He motioned for the puppet to move around behind them forcing them to divide their attention. He dashed forward attacking and the puppet did the same. The two men braced for the attack, but would have failed to stop it.

"Enough." The leader said. The two men let out a sigh. They would have died had she not stopped them. Enshii and the puppet halted immediately and turned to face her. "You've beaten my men, but I want to see all of your skills." She said. "Find me, and fight me." She said leaving. She was gone in an instant almost disappearing. The group left him alone and told him he should make sure he was ready for her. None of them could possibly defeat her and they doubted that he would. She was in a league of her own.

He ignored them and started off after her letting his puppet go ahead of him while he waited. He watched through its eyes whatever it saw. He directed it a little to whatever he felt might be important, but it was much more efficient for him. He would not have to go chasing after her. The puppet would do that and he would try and force her to run to wherever he wanted to face her. The fight would be on his terms.

It actually took several hours for the puppet to find anything that led in the right direction. She had been leading them in circles. He was surprised that she could do all of that in such a short amount of time and then be so far ahead. Though he had hardly left the camp his puppet had traveled far. After some time the trail was starting to get fresher as if she had waited to see how long it would take him to catch up. He wondered if she knew he was not really following her.

It was a challenge and a thrill. He wanted to be the one to beat her since no one else had. He guessed this might be part of the reason. Many of them would get exhausted just chasing after her and then she could strike and take them out. He guessed that was her strategy for this. It was a good way to test their endurance along with her own. He did not think she would really be patient enough to go on into the next day. He certainly did not intend to do that. He was trying to hurry the puppet along since it could not get tired.

This did help. It got to the point where he could see her. He caught a glimpse of her running. She really was fast and she was not even breaking a sweat. He got the feeling that their fight would be interesting.

She caught sight of the puppet and smiled. She was a little surprised that he had caught up, but also surprised that she did not see him there. She guessed that he might be nearby somewhere trying to corner her. Of course, that was wrong. Now that he had seen her he was going to go and pick a place to fight so he told the puppet to try and turn her around. He was going to pick somewhere enclosed so he could have her out in the open, but surprise her.

He found a nice spot. It was a place she had led the puppet through. It worked for what he intended to do. Now all he had to do was wait and make sure the puppet brought her there. He hid and then watched as the puppet chased after her. She made her way back towards the camp on her own, but the puppet was trying to direct her a little more in his direction. It was difficult since she was smart enough to figure out his plan. However, she did not avoid him at all. She seemed content to let the puppet lead her wherever.

_I suppose she has changed strategies now that I have started forcing her hand._ He thought. He sat in the tree and watched her enter the small clearing. The puppet halted her movements and they faced of. "I guess you're hiding somewhere watching. Are you hoping to see me fight before challenging me? You did with my men." She said. _She was aware of that? _He thought a little surprised. "They just follow orders so they might not notice something like that, but I did. It's good to see that you like to study others before making a move." She said complimenting him. It caught him off guard and distracted him.

She got past the puppet and came after him. He was surprised to find her leaping towards him from another tree. He quickly dodged and then had to defend as she quickly came again. _Too fast!_ He thought. His puppet came to help, but even that was not much help. It only slightly divided her attention, but she was very focused on him. "I gather you have a special power allowing you to control your puppet." She said.

_She's smart. No wonder she is their leader. She can easily observe a situation or person and learn a lot. _He thought. At this point all he was doing was defending himself or just trying to. He was not being very successful at it. He was starting to get the feeling that she really was going to win. He just was not skilled enough to fight her. In the end he just gave up. Her sword was at his throat as she declared victory.

"You're good, better than most of them. I take it you let you puppet find me while you waited here." She said not really asking. He merely nodded sulking in his defeat. He had honestly wanted to best her. Even the puppet seemed sad at the loss. "Don't fret. Everyone loses once in a while."

"Have you?" He asked.

"Of course! How do you think I managed to get this far? You have to learn from your defeat." The way she answered actually surprised him. She was acting very differently from what he imagined. She was far more open with him now than she was before. "Alright, back to the camp now. You're one of us now…."

"Enshii." He said realizing that he had never actually said his name.

"I'm Reiza. You should get to know everyone. They are going to be your allies in battle so you must learn to respect them. You are probably more accustomed to working alone, but here that is over. We are a group and you must learn to work in one." She said very sternly. "Any sort of failure and you will be punished." She finished going back to the more expected tone of a leader.

They returned and she explained that he was now a member. Their group had no formal name to be called. Most just gave them a name by their reputation. They were always merciless in their kills and very efficient. Still they just preferred to be called mercenaries. A title was not something they wanted or felt they needed.

It was harder for the group to consider him welcome, but over time they all became friends. They were not oblivious to his sudden outbursts though. There were times when they were on jobs that he did not stop when he was supposed to. He would ignore orders and keep killing. In those moments most of them were too afraid to stop him. The look he had drove them back. It also brought a nice little bounty on his head.

Most of the group would not even consider turning him in until it became apparent that he was reaching the point of no return. Years had passed and now he had a total of five puppets. Only one of them was not being used. He was not quite finished with it. He was twenty-three at the time. They were on a job, but they had been discovered. Enshii was going to distract them so everyone could get away. He could just repair the puppets, but not his comrades.

However, it was another one of those moments where he was not himself. He could not and would not stop. Once he killed some of the soldiers putting enough fear in them to make them run he returned to the group and suddenly it occurred to him that he did not need them. He did not just want to leave though. They were skilled and they were definitely competition.

He stood there watching them all. Reiza stood by giving orders telling them to hurry up and get a move on. The army was not just going to let them get away. Enshii had the same thought. He was fixed on her and now he felt like he had to beat her. Finally, someone would put her in her place.

He found it interesting that everyone he had ever killed had never done anything to him. His parents had only cared for him and yet they were dead. He killed for a living because of that day. He had enjoyed doing it and felt that it would be more fitting for him. Now here he was about to kill others like him. He knew that they had different reasons for doing what they did. He had heard them all while keeping his reason to himself. Today he guessed he would simply show them.

He had two puppets come up behind her while she shouted orders. It was insurance in case she saw him and decided to either fight back or run. He came up behind her and attacked. She seemed to sense him coming, but the puppets held her in place. It only took a second. Everyone paused for a moment and watched her fall. She hit the ground and shivered. "Why?!" She said in pain. She tried to look at him, but she could not move for the puppets.

"Because I can." He said. Everyone heard him. "You're a skilled fighter, but you became too comfortable around us. I took the opportunity that no one else would. I respected you, but in the end you're just another person. Another human that can die." He said.

"The same can be said of you." Someone said. Enshii shrugged and nodded.

"True, but can any of you honestly beat me right now?" He said looking around. None of them moved. He sent the rest of his puppets to kill them off. Reiza finally managed to sit up and face him.

"You're disgraceful!" She said. "I should've seen it. I knew that there was something about you. I just couldn't see it." She said.

"Hm. Well, now you do." He said finishing her off. He just sat back watching as his puppets were about to finish the job. He watched as their souls danced around waiting to reach the afterlife. Reiza's soul hovered near her body and he chose to take it. He still had a puppet that was empty. She was strong, but right now he was strong enough to bend her to his will.

It was then that he noticed that a few of them were missing. They must have managed to slip past his puppets unnoticed. He clenched his fist and cursed. He knew what they might do. The bounty on his head was a high one. They were more than likely going to try and collect it somehow. He gathered his puppets and started following them. There were three of them.

* * *

"Narshe, are you sure about this?"

They were running back towards the castle. They had to do something or Enshii would kill them all and probably get away with it. Narshe nodded thinking about the friends they had already lost. Reiza, Sin, Gordon, Ashton, Nikolas, and Nico. They had known each other for a long time and it was hard to lose them all so suddenly. He knew that something had to be done. Soon he knew Enshii would come after Jonathan, Ray, and himself. "Hurry up, Jonathan!" He shouted back at him. He was lagging behind. He was not really the fighter.

He was their liaison when it came to jobs and their finances. He had always made sure that everyone got a fair cut of the reward. He was good with numbers and also served as a scout when they needed him. He was lagging behind mainly because he wanted to be able to warn them if Enshii were coming after them. All of them were fairly sure that he would be soon. They were going to try and get the king to help them while also collecting the bounty.

"It doesn't look like he's coming yet. He may not have figured it out yet." Jonathan said to them.

"It's only a matter of time." Ray said solemnly. They were all thinking the same thing. They just knew that something had to be done. They ran harder trying to make it to the castle a little faster hoping they would have enough time.

* * *

Meanwhile none of them noticed that they were being observed. Someone was watching them closely after noticing what was going on. They were on a searching for one of them. Scythe knew who it was, someone by the name Narshe. He saw that the group was having a bit of a problem, but it was not one he intended to interfere in until it posed a problem for him. Siren and Glaed were both with him. Glaed enjoyed seeing the seemingly senseless killing Enshii was performing. It made her smile, but she did not like Enshii at all.

Scythe looked beyond that and saw potential. He did know that he would have to do more than just enlist him as he had these two. Enshii did not handle having a master well for long and he could see that. He would have to do more than just defeat him. Enshii would have to learn real fear. He needed him to be afraid of him the way Glaed did. Siren feared him, but not really in the same way.

They watched him kill most of them, but they did see that a few had gotten away. Glaed was a little too excited and wanted to go after them. They were close enough to hear their names and know which one was the target. "No, Glaed. We wait." Scythe said. She stopped clenching her fist. "I know it is difficult, but you must exercise some patience."

They watched and it took Enshii some time to realize three of them were gone. It gave them time to see what he could really do. Scythe could see it all where siren and Glaed could not. Scythe watched him capture a soul and place it into a puppet. He found it very interesting and only added to his interest in him. He knew he would be a valuable member.

They followed as Enshii picked up their trail. They did manage to reach the castle and ran as far as they were able. Enshii silently came in without even being seen. Scythe, Siren and Glaed just walked right in calmly as if they were only visiting. In a sense they were. They made there way up undeterred by anyone. The guards were absent as they were trying to detain the three that had charged in.

All at once they were talking each telling the story in unison hoping they would hear and understand. Almost as soon as they mentioned his name they froze and the King decided to hear them out. His name was well known now with the bounty. It would be better for everyone that he be gone. Scythe and them stood in the doorway listening. They moved aside when Enshii arrived in a rage. He completely ignored them and headed for his former friends. They were about to become very dead.

He reached Jonathan before anyone realized what was happening. He cried out in pain and then fell dead. Everyone turned to Enshii who just laughed at them and how pitiful they looked. "You would betray me? That is not something Reiza would have tolerated. We are comrades are we not?" He said. None of them spoke. "Well, Reiza, why don't you punish them?" He said.

"What?!" They said knowing that she was dead. A puppet the only female among them came forward holding a sword. They just stared at it and got a very familiar stare back. It was all in the eyes otherwise the puppet had only the expression Enshii had given it. They both jumped away as the puppet attacked. It was fast just like her and it reacted just as she would. After a few moments neither of them could doubt that somehow…it was her.

"What did you do to her?" Narshe shouted at Enshii.

"I merely trapped her soul in that puppet. It's almost as if I had made it especially for her." He said laughing. He disgusted Narshe now. For the first time they all could see what he was. Scythe finally came forward now that Enshii was about to kill Narshe. He did still need him alive.

"Excuse me, but I cannot allow you to kill him just yet." Scythe said. Everyone turned to him. He walked by Enshii who glared at him and made his way towards Narshe picking him up by the collar. Reiza paused, but readied her sword. "I wouldn't do that. You would live to regret it." Scythe threatened. He did not even look at Enshii, but he could tell that he was weary of him.

"Who are you?"

"If you want to know then follow me. Otherwise, do not interfere, or you will die." He replied as he opened the portal into death. Siren and Glaed followed. Glaed noticed that one of them was still alive so she took a moment to kill them. She just could not resist doing something before leaving.

Enshii was curious, but there was one thing he wanted to do before leaving. Jonathan and Ray were dead and now their souls were just waiting to be taken. He looked at his puppets knowing that he would have to release two souls in order to do it. Siren stood waiting keeping the portal open as instructed by Scythe. He was going to give him a choice. Enshii noticed and quickly switched two souls so that his former friends would endure a nice punishment. He was also thinking of doing the same to Narshe once he figured out what they wanted.

He followed Siren closely not wanting to lose her. He felt uneasy in death. He even made sure to keep his puppets close. He was not sure what he would find or what to expect here. It was so bright and endless he wondered how she knew where to go. Suddenly without warning the light became nothing but darkness all around them. He could hardly see Siren in front of him. His eyes had not adjusted to the dimness. He followed her once again wondering how she knew where to go.

She stopped and pointed towards Scythe. He was standing by a large orb holding Narshe by the neck. "In a few moments the world you knew will be gone. It will die until The Abyss gives it life again." Scythe said.

"I don't care, but I am curious. What are you going to do to him?"

"He holds a piece of its soul. Something that world needs to survive. Once it is returned…the planet withers and dies killing any living thing on it." He answered.

"I see." Enshii said captivated by what he was seeing. Scythe was chanting a spell and he could literally see a soul leaving Narshe's body. It was different from normal human souls. It was much brighter and he guessed that like its larger counterpart it was visible to everyone. He felt this thing and heard it in his mind. It was alive and when it was over he knew that his world would soon be dead. There would be no going back. "Now that you're done. I want him." Enshii said. Scythe nodded giving no objection.

**Author:** Well there it is. Now you know a lot more about Enshii. To me the story sounds a little like an anime I've been watching so it probably has more elements from that than I intended. Well now you know who four of his puppets are. The first one doesn't ever change from the first soul he took.

I'm probably just going to tell you their stories at random. I just felt like starting with Enshii for some reason even though I have Scythe and Siren's histories already written out. I never really got past theirs anyway so this gave me a chance to develop his.


	50. Win some Lose some

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 50 Win some, Lose some

After leaving Sephiroth started to feel uneasy about going. He was leaving her there and it bothered him. Someone was with her, but the feeling would not go away. Two months ago she had still been missing and part of him was so worried about that occurring again.

He watched Midgar fade away saying goodbye to her one more time. He was not alone in leaving. Heidegger and Scarlet were there with him in the helicopter. It was something he loathed. Their laughing made him sick. He wanted to drown them out, but unfortunately he could not. They were attempting to include him in the conversation. Some of it was necessary, but he wanted to be ignored.

"Now, you are going to lead the attack, Sephiroth." Scarlet said. He glanced at her, but otherwise ignored her. She went on regardless not caring if he really heard her. He would eventually here all of this again anyway. "You must make sure to come in at the right time. Your group will make your way to Godo. Get him and it is over." Sephiroth could tell exactly what she was thinking.

They wanted her to kill him and end things that way, but he did not want to do that. After meeting with Godo he realized that he was a good man, but he also knew that he was afraid. Mainly it was not for himself. He was afraid that Shinra would destroy his people and their way of living. Sephiroth did not intend to be the one to do that.

"Yes with him out of the way they would all fall apart. We could take control of Wutai." Heidegger said. Sephiroth frowned still looking out the window.

_Lilia. _He thought reaching out to her. _I wish I did not have to be here. They want me to kill Godo to end the war. That won't make Shinra look very good._ He said.

_You're not going to kill him!_ She said back. He felt how forceful it was. It was much louder than he had expected it to be. He hid it from them though making his face unreadable. _Don't kill him! That would only make things worse even though it would end the war. There is a better way to do it._

_I know._ He replied. _I had no intention of doing that. I will still have to face him. Maybe when he see's that he cannot win he will give up. I don't care if they don't like that. I can't kill him when I have no reason to._

_Besides the fact that he has a family!_ She said. He could actually see her standing there frowning with one eyebrow raised.

_That too, but I will have to kill fathers, brothers, and husbands on the way there._ He said. _It will be unavoidable._ He could tell that she was starting to get a little annoyed. She seemed to understand.

_I know that you'll have to do things like that in order to end the war, but don't go too far._ She said finally.

_Ok. I won't. _He said returning to Scarlet and Heidegger. They had finally ignored him. He had been talking to her for just a few minutes, but it was long enough for them to figure out he was not listening. He was glad. They were rather crude people and he really did not want to be included in any of their conversations.

They started off by going to Junon. They would have to reach Wutai by boat. They already had a small group at Junon waiting for them. They were giving them updates on what the Wutanese were doing. For whatever reason they were not hiding any of their efforts from them. They were not even bothering to attack the soldiers Shinra had placed there. Sephiroth could see the reasoning behind it.

They did not want to be the aggressor. If Shinra attacked them then they would instantly gain sympathy. Most of their objective would be stealthy. Everyone did know that he was going to be there, but they had no idea what they were going to do. They had no way of knowing how they were going to attack. Would he charge in to destroy them? Would he even fight? Most people could answer that question. Sephiroth would not sit back and watch. He would fight. Sitting around and watching would be Heidegger and Scarlet's job. It literally was their jobs. They gave orders and made sure the soldiers had what they need. What that really meant was they had everything they needed to die. That is what many soldiers were there for.

Sephiroth knew that was very true. It was true for him as well. He was not as expendable, but they could always make someone else. It was really the first time he had ever thought about that. It made him think. He realized that maybe they were. Or more specifically it was Hojo at the company's request. He was perfect for now, but there could always be something better. _Is that what he wants? Is that why she's there?_ He thought. He was a little worried that maybe he was right. How should he tell her? It made him feel strange.

Suddenly he felt that he understood what Hojo was after when he brought her in. Now all of the sudden they were slowly giving him what he wants. It made him feel angry, but weary. It meant that what he wanted might just go on hold for a while until he could figure something out. He knew that she would want to know, but he worried that right now something like that could be too much. A few months being back was not enough time yet. He quickly made the decision to ignore his suspicions. He was not even sure if he was right, but in a way he knew he was.

He sighed heavily trying to let it go so he could move on and continue his duties. For now it was a long waiting game. Once everyone was assembled they would get on the boats and wait. It was all they could do right now. They had to wait until they reached Wutai to do anything. It would be a few days before they reached land again. Sephiroth knew that there was not really much he would be doing. He understood that he was going to be bored the entire time. However, it was his job to make sure everyone was ready.

* * *

Godo paced back and forth once again. It was now a ritual that he repeated everyday. He looked at the reports in front of him and frowned. For a while now there were many reports telling him what he already knew. They were showing a little aggression towards Shinra even though they had not made a move. Shinra was now sending in someone to take care of it. Sephiroth was coming and not as a diplomat. The reports before him said that Shinra was going for an all out war with them. This was going to be a final battle.

His wife came in and saw him pacing. All she could do was sigh. She had seen him do that everyday for over a month. She never said anything, but she was worried. He tried to keep her out of the loop and never told her much about what was going on. She did understand that he did not want her to worry, but she did. She was worried about him.

She could see that even Yuffie noticed. She tried very hard to do things for him. She was little, but she felt that something was bothering him even though she did not know what it was. It made her smile to see that. It was cute and it gave them the opportunity to spend time together. It made him smile and for those moments he could forget his troubles.

Before she could reach him someone rushed in handing him another report. She paused in the doorway where he could not see her. This was her opportunity to listen in and know what is going on. She had been doing that. Listening to them talk briefly before bringing him dinner. It was the only time she could.

"I see. So they are on their way now." Godo said.

"Yes. They left about an hour ago. By boat it will take some time for them to arrive. We will have time to prepare."

"He is with them correct?" He nodded and Godo sighed. "I see. We should get ready for their arrival, but we should be weary. Sephiroth is Shinra's elite soldier. We can't underestimate him and what he can do." Godo said to him.

He nodded and then left. Godo stood there reading the report fully. It only made him frown more. His wife came in and quietly sat his dinner on his desk. She paused and looked at him before leaving. He was worried and for now failed to even notice the food she had brought him. She sighed and could not help, but think about her own feelings._ It's a good thing I love him._ She thought. _What would he do without me?_ She smiled at that thought.

* * *

Arriving on the island made all of them happy. Being stuck on a boat with little to do was bad enough, but the fact that they were stuck down with the cargo made it worse. It was hot, smelly, and dirty. For some that was not really a problem, but Sephiroth noticed it more so than others might. Another problem was who was bored. Sephiroth felt that way and he could force any of them to do whatever he wanted. He was their superior and they had to listen to him.

Lilia was also finding him a little annoying. She was a little bored too, but she had a limit. _I'm sorry. I can't help it. I'm not like you. I can't just sit by myself daydreaming all day._ He said.

_I'm sorry too. If you were here or if I were there with you we would both be entertained. _She said to him. He smiled understanding what she meant, but part of him paused. That thought came back to him. He really wanted to say something, but he was not sure what or how to say it. _What is it?_ She said suddenly bringing him out of those thoughts.

_Nothing! It's nothing._ He replied feeling afraid. He knew she might not be happy that he was hiding something from her. He was right.

_You're lying! I can tell._

_I have something I want to say, but not like this. We'll talk about it when I get back. _He told her. It was the only way he could get her to let it go for now.

_Fine. We'll talk about it when you get back._ He felt the stress on _when_. She intended to bring it up.

_I love you, Lilia. Now just isn't the time for that._ He said.

_I love you too. We're going to have a talk when you get back. You know you don't have to hide things from me._ She said. He also felt like there might be something else there, but it was a private thought. He did not delve or mention it to her. It made him wonder a little about what she might hide from him. He got the feeling it really was not very much.

The next day after everyone had had time to stretch their legs they had to get ready. They had a ways to go to reach Wutai, but they were going to wait. They were waiting for someone to update them on the situation. There really was not much to tell. They obviously knew they were coming and were getting ready. They were not actually moving out towards them to fight. They were going to wait for them to come.

Sephiroth expected that. They wanted everyone else who was not fighting to see what Shinra was capable of doing. Wutai would be a martyr. They were going to be an example of Shinra's strength and cruelty. He knew that they would suffer a lot before it was over. For the first time he almost dreaded fighting them. However, it was his job and he did enjoy fighting.

He absently listened to Scarlet go over the plan again this time to everyone. He had heard it all before and knew what they wanted, but he could care less. He had no intention of doing what they wanted. There really was no reason to do that anyway. He felt that Godo would do what was best for Wutai in the end. Unfortunately, that would mean giving up and he knew that would be hard.

The people of Wutai were very proud of their heritage and status. Losing that could crush them. He knew that he would be the one to crush them. He would take everything from them only giving them more reason to call him a demon. He had heard them say it about him several times during all of his visits there, but it did not bother him.

Once Scarlet was done they set out making their way to Wutai. Once they arrived they could easily see the army that awaited them. Sephiroth looked them all over finding that all of them were commited to the cause, but they were not ready for this. He felt sorry for them since he knew that they were all going to die. He sighed, but said nothing. Even though he was a general he was also waiting for orders. Heidegger was in charge of this operation.

Once he gave the signal they began. Some charged at the wutanese while some waited for their turn. They would go in waves. Sephiroth charged forward cutting through the centerline just trying to get past them. He knew that the Turks were already inside the city waiting for him. His only objective now was to get there and then they would move on to where Godo was. He did not really have a hard time getting past them. He easily cut them down as they tried to get in his way.

They were brave. None of them moved aside, but each charged to fight him. He admired that about them. They did not run away from a fight no matter what the odds were. He was truly impressed. It made sense since they were really the only ones fighting against Shinra like this.

Once he was past them he headed to where he knew the Turks were waiting. He could still hear the fighting behind him and he could still feel the adrenaline pumping. He knew that he would need to calm down so he slowed down a little hoping that would help. He did not want to end up doing something he might regret later. He had already promised her that he would be good.

He found them and they silently moved on heading towards Godo's home. He had not seen fit to move. Sephiroth guessed it was because either he did not know they were coming or he did and did not want to run away. Either way it did not matter to him. He followed silently behind the Turks. For the most part they met with no resistance. There were a few guards on the way, but no one truly posing a threat to them.

Godo was waiting for them and he looked as if he were waiting for them. They could easily see where all of the guards had gone. They were everywhere in the room. None of them moved when they entered. He knew that they were only going to attack if they tried anything. It was a wise thing to do. Maybe this way all they would have to do is talk.

"You're finally here. I have been expecting you. I knew Shinra would never simply fight us." Godo said to them. They paused in the middle of the room listening. "Have you all come to kill me?" He said looking at Sephiroth.

"That depends entirely on you." Sephiroth replied. "It would be better if things could end peacefully. You know what that means." Godo nodded understanding completely.

"I cannot simply give up. Shinra needs to be held accountable for the things they have done."

"You are fighting a losing battle. Will you allow Shinra to destroy this city and its people? It would be a disappointment to see you all die." Sephiroth said.

"Is that what you believe or the sentiment of Shinra?"

"I cannot speak for the president. He can think what he wants." Sephiroth said. "There is no reason for your people to all be killed. If you don't surrender we will have to destroy Wutai."

Godo stared at him for a moment. He was considering his options. "Come closer, Sephiroth." He said mutely. Sephiroth did. He guessed that he wanted to talk a little more personally.

"You seem intent on ending this without killing me. I know that was your orders." He said.

"Yes, but I promised someone that I would not kill you."

"Someone you care about?" He asked. Sephiroth just nodded. "I see. I have promised my wife several things, but I only seem capable of breaking them. I must think of my family as well as my people. If I surrender my people could lose their way of life. Do you know what we stand to lose?" Sephiroth nodded. Shinra was going to take away everything they had. They would no longer be able to fight back besides the fact that they were taking over their business. "They will not like my decision."

"No I don't suspect they will, but at least they will live. One day Shinra will not exist and someone else will take over. That is simply how things are." Sephiroth said. Godo nodded understanding and told the guard to tall his generals to surrender. He felt a little disgraced, but he knew it was better than the alternative. Sephiroth felt relieved and he also knew that he was being watched.

_I'm glad things went well._ She said. He could feel her smiling.

_So am I. Killing him would not have solved things. I suppose this really doesn't either, but it is better than killing them all._ He replied.

_True. Well at least now you can come back. I miss you and now Zack is kind of getting annoying. He's way too happy for me. _Sephiroth laughed a little. He was glad this was over and he was looking forward to seeing her again. He also knew that even though she was glad to see him there was something they were going to talk about. He almost dreaded it. He was actually wondering if she had ever thought about that. It would have to wait though. Now that things were over here they had to clean up the mess they had made. It was really the only aggravating part of this.

**Author:** Well, I'm mostly better. My root canal gave me an infection so I had to have that cleaned up and I had them remove the tooth. It's still sore after nearly two weeks. At least I don't look like I ate something and stuck it in my cheek anymore. It's just annoying that I still have trouble eating things.

Of course because of that I had time for school and only school plus dentist stuff. I was a little behind on schoolwork since I was in too much pain before the surgery to do much. Now I'm all caught up and that means unless I forget I will update next week. If I don't I may just update twice the next week.


	51. A sort of Vacation

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 51 A "sort of" vacation

I sat in the chamber waiting ever so patiently, but since there was obviously something bothering Sephiroth I felt anxious. _What was it and why did it have to wait? _I kept thinking that over and over again. He would not talk to me about it unless it was in person. I knew that it meant it might be a touchy subject at least from his point of view.

When he got back he sat down and leaned against the glass sighing. I decided to let him start and if he did not then I would have to force it out of him! I leaned against him hoping that it would help a little. "Lilia, something occurred to me while I was there. I was thinking about the soldiers and how expendable Shinra has made them."

"Go on." I said encouraging him.

"Have you thought about the reason you're here?" He asked quieter than before. I nodded. "I'm not sure, but I think I know the reason. Of course, only Hojo and the higher ups know the reason."

"You could just as easily find out, Seph. You more easily than I. I don't want to do that. I won't touch his mind!" I said frowning at the thought. Hojo was demented and annoying enough on the outside there was almost no way that I was going to go into his mind. It could be much worse. Sephiroth seemed to agree with me.

"I wouldn't ask you to." He stated. "It occurred to me that...maybe you're only here to help create more people like me."

"I'm only here because I can have children. I have considered that, Sephiroth. I'm surprised that you are just reaching that conclusion." I said looking at him.

"I never thought about it. I never cared enough about it." He said. "There were many others before you and none of them lived more than a week. When you did, I still expected you to die. When a month passed and you were still here I started to feel different about you. I knew that you would make it and that I wouldn't be alone anymore."

"You'd be fine without me." I said lowering my head. "I need you so much more. I'd be dead already if you weren't here with me." I said.

"Lilia…." He put his arms around me and held me close. "Without you...I would be dead. I could never be this person without you." I did understand what he meant when he said that. He would not literally be dead. He would just be dead inside. I definitely did not want him to be like that. I wanted him to be happy, but right now even though we were I felt so depressed. I just frowned. "I know you feel down right now and that could go on for a while. I have an idea though." He said smiling. "Would you like to just get out of the building for a while?"

"I'd like to leave this continent for a while, but that's not going to happen." I said.

"I can make something happen. Maybe you could stay at my apartment for a while, maybe while I am stationed here. That would only be a month." He said.

"Can you get Hojo and the president on board with that?"

"I can if I want to." He said deviously. That made me smile. It meant he was actually going to threaten them. He is stronger than anyone else so he could just scare it out of them.

"I think that would help a lot. I need to get out of here. It's a lot like deepground, but a whole lot cleaner." I said. He nodded and got up to leave. "You're going to do it right now?" I asked.

"Yes. The sooner the better. Maybe I can get them to let us leave tonight." He said. I felt really excited about it so I smiled and laughed a little. That made him smile too. We both felt a little bit better for it I could tell.

He was gone for a few hours. I guess it took a lot of talking and convincing. _I think he may end up doing more threatening than anything else._ He returned smiling happily holding the papers in his hand. He smiled and handed them to me. They were detailed instructions of what was to happen. I could go, but I had to come in twice a week for scheduled visits with Hojo. I could not leave midgar and if we went somewhere someone had to be notified of our whereabouts. Besides the fact that a Turk would take us wherever we were going. They were going to watch us and write their own report of our activities.

"How did you pull this off exactly?"

"Threats. I could easily kill either of them. It would be no big deal. What would they do to me afterward?" He said.

"When can we go?" I said nearly jumping up and down.

"Now." He said. "While I am stationed here you get to stay with me and there is a schedule in there for your visits." He sighed when he mentioned that. "It's a small price to pay. You'll see less of this place for a while."

I squealed a little and jumped at him. The look on his face told me he had no idea how happy I was about this. I hugged him as tightly as I could before getting whatever I wanted to take with me. He helped me get my things together. Sheila had some of them and she just said she would bring them by his apartment. I was so excited things were rushing through my head. _What to do first?_ I thought.

We were in the car on our way when he decided to talk again. He spoke quietly though so the driver would hear less. "Oh and I learned something. I decided that while I was there with him I might as well find out what he had been doing with us."

"Really. Well?"

"We were both right. He has tried, but failed it seems. He won't give up though. It is far too important to the company and to him. He needs it to work."

"I see. So what has he tried exactly?"

"In vitro quite a few times. All of them failed so now he is trying to do it on his own without you, but because of our relationship he is hoping we will do it ourselves."

"Covering all of his bases I guess, but that means..."

"We have to be careful." He said. "I won't allow him to take that from us." That was the end of the conversation. He was starting to get angry at the thought of Hojo taking a child from us. I felt the same way. I did not want him touching any child I had no matter who the father was. It was bad enough to know what he has already done. Thinking about that made me wonder if I should tell him anything else about myself. There was still a lot to say, but how to say it. "We're here."

We went in and threw my things down on the floor. There was no reason to put them away at the moment since neither of us cared. Even amongst all of the depressing talk I was happy. We ended up lying down on the couch for a while. I felt very comfortable like that. He was behind me and I could feel his breath on my neck and his hands roamed a little. It was simple and nice.

Of course, there is always something to interrupt things like that. It was only Zack so it did not bother us all that much. He had heard somehow and he was really excited about it. It meant that we could finally have that double date. I was looking forward to doing that. "I can't believe that Shinra is allowing this. It's great! You can finally meet her!" He said prattling on. Eventually it became too much and we just hammered out the details. The when and where and obviously that they would have to meet us there since I have to have an escort there. Sephiroth would pay for it since I told him to and after that he left and we were alone again.

"Sometimes I wonder how I stand him." Sephiroth said.

"It's not really that hard. He's a good friend to have." I said turning around to face him. "I love you, Seph." I said smiling.

"I love you." He said kissing me. It felt really different this time. Much better than before. He did not stop there, but continued kissing down my neck and I felt him reaching under my clothes. I let him do it for a little bit. There was no reason that we could not feel good for a while. A bra was never included in my things so I was quickly topless. All I could do was smile as he continued kissing me working his way down.

I closed my eyes just wanting to feel it. It felt good. I felt him kiss my breast and I could not help, but laugh slightly. It was a strange sensation for me. Then he was doing more than just kissing them. I felt him cup his hand around one and put it in his mouth. I gasped a little not really expecting it or the way it felt. I was actually more surprised by the fact that none of this bothered me. It really had not been that long since they had found me.

When he was done with that he started kissing me again. I froze when I felt his lips on my stomach. "Stop!" I said sternly. "I need you to stop now." I said reaching for my shirt.

"What is it?"

"I haven't told you that part yet." I whispered.

"Maybe you should now." He said looking a little bit worried, but I could see in his eyes that he was not ready to stop. He wanted more than that. I could see why, but I ignored that the same way he was trying to.

"I tried hard not to scream or cry unless I couldn't help it. One day he wanted me to and I wouldn't so he forced it out of me."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know if I can say it." I said.

"Then don't." He replied. That meant I would have to show him. I hesitated, but it was the only way I could do it. So I did. I showed him everything. It was all I could do to convey how that day had been. Him cutting me, and then the end. Threatening to rape me even though he never would have. Afterward Sephiroth just sat there staring at nothing. "I understand now." He said.

"Are you ok?" He nodded.

"He's gone now. So I can't punish him, but I'm sure Gaia is taking care of that for me." He said. He was angry. He was very angry. His entire body was shaking. "I'll come back later once I've calmed down. You can do whatever you want until then." Now his voice was shaking as well.

"You don't want me to come this time." I said putting my shirt back on.

"No. This is much worse than last time. You don't need to see it. I feel that you're safer here. I'll ask Zack to keep an eye on you." He said leaving. I said nothing. What could I say that would actually help him right now. I just decided to put my things away and see exactly what he has in here. I'll be here for a while and now is the time to get familiar with it.

Sephiroth was gone for a long time and Zack came in twice to check on me. We ended up talking since he thought that I was bored. It was true, but I was contemplating redecorating. It was very plain in his apartment and honestly I did not like it that way. "So I was thinking we should change some things in here." I said when he came back.

"Like what?" He replied sitting down next to me.

"You feel better now?" He nodded and smiled. "Ok. So I was thinking that maybe we could redecorate a little bit."

"Define a little bit." He said raising an eyebrow.

"Paint the walls for starters, maybe have something on them." I said looking at the plain walls. There was nothing there not even weapons hanging on the wall for display. "It doesn't have to be much, but it needs something."

"I thought you'd feel that way. It was missing a womans touch." He said. It reminded me of something he had said before. It was the only other time I had been here. He had said that it was missing something and now I uinderstood what he meant.

"Now it makes sense. You said before that it was missing something. You meant me, didn't you?" I asked him. He nodded. "You were planning on bringing me here like this before."

"Not exactly. I wanted something much more permanent. Something more meaningful. This is only a month, I want a lifetime." He said looking away.

"Seph, is there something you want to say?" I asked reading between the lines. He was saying something, but he was dancing around it. I wanted him to just say it. It was also something that he does not do often.

"No. Now is not the time." He said. "Don't worry, Lilia. There is something I want to say, but now I have the opportunity to do it the way I want." He said. I noticed that he was holding something in his pocket.

"What is that?" He got up very quickly almost running from me. "Seph?!"

"No, Lilia. I can't give you this now." He said. "Just be patient, please."

"Ok." I said watching him go into his room. I knew that he was going to hide it somewhere hoping that I would never look for it. Unfortunately for him I knew that I was going to go and look for it. I may be here living temporarily in his apartment, but it has struck my curiosity and now I want to know. Of course, that doesn't mean I won't lie to his face when he gives it to me either.

_I know what you're thinking of doing. Even if you find it you can't get to it. I do have a safe, Lilia. This is very important to me so you must promise me you'll wait._ He said suddenly.

"Fine!" I said disappointed. He returned smiling at me.

"I do know you well enough, Lilia. I know it's hard, but I've been waiting just as long as you if not longer. It's what I wanted to give you when you turned eighteen." He said.

"It's that gift?" He nodded. "Just don't wait too much longer, Seph. I want to know what it is. There may not be another chance since you want to make it so special."

"I know." He whispered. "It's late. Lets go to bed." I nodded happily thinking that this would be the first time in a long time that I have actually gotten to sleep on a real bed. It would be another strange first experience for me since it was his bed in his home. I did know that he hardly slept here. This place is something he got from the company. It is something they give every first class soldier, but his is supposedly special. He is special to them.

I felt odd especially when he turned off the lights and got into bed. I felt it move and heard it creak a little as he got closer to me. It even felt a little strange when he put his arms around me. His bed was much bigger than the one in the chamber. Being in it for the first time felt different to me. I actually felt a little nervous. All I could think was that one day maybe we would be sleeping here and not just like this. I smiled at the image I conjured, but it also made me pause. What would we be then? What we are now or more than that? I really did not know, but I had to let it go for now. If I kept thinking about it I would never go to sleep and he was already there. He was out and it had only been a few minutes. For a moment I envied him. It was not something I could do.

**Author:** Sorry again! I meant to update, but I've learned that if I don't do it on Thursday or Wednesday (if I'm here at school) it won't be happening on Friday. I don't have computer classes that day so you could say that I'm only near Internet one day a week. Also there is the fact that I have lots of homework.

My classes are bombarding me with things and I'm having to think about next quarter, plus the stuff from when I was sick. It has been a very stressful few weeks for me. I'm not to the point of ripping out hair or anything, but I feel like I'm close. A lot of the reason I haven't updated in a while is because of my zine. We have to make one and it's supposed to have thirty pages and I learned mine would be more. So I spent some of last week and the beginning of this week making like twelve pages. It doesn't really sound like a whole lot, but I have to draw everything! And paint, which is not something I don't enjoy. It takes forever. Again I'm really sorry for not updating in like a month. I know that's a long time for me anyway. I'm going to say now that I probably won't be able to update every week anymore. I don't really know about next quarter. I'll try to update next week, but it might be the next week.


	52. Unexpected Visitor

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 52 Unexpected Visitor

Step….Step….step.

Over and over he forced himself to move on. He could see the city in the distance, but it seemed so very far away at the moment. He paused needing to catch his breath. He used his sword to support himself having an injured leg that for some reason refused to heal. It was very annoying to him. His mind was going crazy at the moment tricking him and confusing him. Some of the things he had seen and done seemed impossible. He just could not figure it out. He could only call it a dream, but he was hurt. That was no dream.

He continued on limping along the way keeping his eyes on the city. He did not want to lose his determination to reach it. That had never been a problem before, but now it was. Suddenly his world was turned upside down and he had no idea why.

* * *

Zack made his rounds for the hundredth time. He was bored out of his mind and since he was on duty he could not leave. He was only going to be stationed in Midgar for a while, but he planned to have that double date now that Lilia could go. Thinking about it made him happy. They would all get to meet each other. He just really wanted to show Aeris off to Lilia. Now him and Sephiroth had someone that they cared for.

He sighed and looked around seeing no one. He sat down for a moment or two getting tired. There was no one around and he was alone. Being boarder patrol was a boring job for him. Things were still a little dicey at the moment. They were still working out the terms for the end of the war and had yet to officially announce it.

He was not really worried about anything happening at the moment. He was sure no one would do anything for now. Everyone knew that Wutai had surrendered. It was common knowledge. He knew that there were a lot of people angry with Godo, but he understood the reason. He had to consider everything and Zack sure did not envy him for having to make that choice. He could only guess that no one else did either.

He sighed and then stood up again. "Man, time could not go any slower today!" He said sighing. He leaned over the wall and looked out towards the mountain. Something caught his eye on the ground. The color red. He looked closer and realized it was a person. "Can't be…." He whispered unsure of what or who he was seeing. "G?"

Zack leaned over more trying to get a better look at him. He just could not believe that it really was him. He was limping a little bit. That was clear to him, but as he got closer the lights made him more visible and Zack realized that it really was him. He felt the anger welling up in him. He could not forget what he had done to his friends. He really could not believe that he would dare come here after what he had done. _You'd figure that he wouldn't want to come here after all of that._ He thought.

* * *

Down below Genesis walked forward contemplating on what had just occurred. His mind was racing trying to figure it all out. He thought he would have died when they entered the mako, but obviously that was not the case. He was still alive and he could still go on with his objective. Before him was Midgar though he was not really sure how that happened at all. Recently things just did not make sense to him. Now all he had to do was make it into deepground again. He knew that if someone who knew him saw him he would be in for a fight. At the moment he did not care.

He was injured, though not fatally, and his view of things had drastically changed. He kept seeing it over and over again. The events that happened after the fall. The place he had seen, it was different. It had felt different. It was not Gaia. He had no idea where or what it may have been exactly. The last part of his time there was odd to him. That white place had actually frightened him.

One moment he could see the sky, the grass, and those people, and the next someone was pulling him away somewhere. It was an eerie place even for him. He felt life all around him there, but it was not life. It was something else. The dead. He guessed that that was their realm. He was in it and for a while he thought he would end up wandering around there forever until he finally died. That was not the case.

He walked for hours limping a little bit and suddenly he was back in the world. He knew instantly that he was back on Gaia. It felt like Gaia to him and he knew where he was even though it did not register until later on. He was not sure what had happened after their fight, but he was sure he could still do what he wanted.

As he limped he started to get the feeling that he was being watched. He hardly cared about them, but he did reach out to find out who it was. He really did not want to deal with any more problems. _Zack._ He thought as he identified him. Part of him frowned, but most of him did not care. Even after all that had happened he felt sure that he could beat him in a fight.

He could tell that he was angry with him. He knew that he must be along with others, but that was of little importance. He did not seem to want to simply jump down and fight him. Getting back up to his post would be difficult once the fight was over…if he won. G laughed to himself. The idea to him was absurd. He was still so full of himself that he did not realize the possibility of losing.

He reached the wall of Midgar realizing there really was only one entrance. He knew even that way in would be barred. He would simply have to make his own way in. He cut through the little fence and went inside, but was faced with something he really had not expected.

"Genesis!" Zack shouted at him. He had his sword ready, but G realized it looked very familiar. _That's Angeals sword._ He thought. "We thought you were dead." He said angrily.

"Really?" He said laughing. "I see that you're taking from the dead." He said meaning the sword. Zack merely glanced at it.

"I'm sure he'd appreciate me using it like this. I'll use it to stop you once and for all." He said.

"Doubtful." G replied. He got ready to defend himself. He did not really feel like being the aggressor now. Zack came at him and he defended for the most part getting in a few hits from time to time. Zack was very relentless in his efforts. G felt tired at the time and hardly paid attention to what was going on. He knew that he should not be doing that.

"Why don't you fight back, G?"

"Is that what you want?" He asked raising an eyebrow. They took a few moments to catch their breath. G realized that his breathing was very labored. _I suppose I'm worse off than I may have thought._ He was thinking. It bothered him and for a moment he considered the fact that he might lose. He was also thinking of running away. Dying now was not his idea. He decided to try fighting a little harder for the moment until he could figure out something else. He knew that he could win this fight if he did the right things.

Zack saw him change his tactics. His stance was no longer defensive in nature. _He's getting ready to fight._ Zack thought. He was actually glad. With G defending he could hardly do anything. He felt silly fighting him when he was not fighting back. "Finally ready to fight me, Genesis?"

"Hm. Something like that." He replied enchanting his sword. Shortly after he raced over towards Zack attacking. Zack dodged a little surprised by his sudden effort. Now he was fighting as if he were never even hurt. He came after him attacking viciously trying to keep the upper hand. Finally he felt he had him cornered. He had been pushing Zack towards the wall in order to trap him. He wanted a quick end to this so he could move on, but Zack realized what he was doing. It was a little late for him to just get away so he let him push him back until he literally back into the wall.

Zack used the size of his sward to help him and instead of using it to fight he used magic. In a situation like this he was well in his right to use it even though this would technically be restricted. He really did not care since he liked living and now he had a good reason. He was doing this for his friends. He wanted to do it for Angeal, and Lilia. He had to beat him because he deserved to be punished. _All of them deserve justice_.He was thinking about everyone still in deepground and their families, Lilia and Sephiroth, and Angeal.

So, Zack used the strongest spell he had on him at the time. It happened to be a fire spell, which caught G off guard a little. He backed away trying not to get the full force of the spell knowing that would only injure him further. He managed to deflect some of it, but it was not enough to clear him of it all. He ended up getting a few burns, some near the wound he already had. He paused feeling the pain and cringed, but tried very hard not to let Zack see. He did not want to show him weakness at a time like this.

"What's the matter, G. That hurt?" Zack said taunting him a little. He was ready for this to end and he could feel it getting closer to that point. He knew that he only needed to go on a little longer before he reached his limit. He wanted to use that to stop him for good and end the fight. He could tell that by fighting G was only hurting himself.

"You think that will be enough to stop me?" He said laughing. He raised his head his eyes filled with anger. He leaped at Zack slashing at him catching him in the arm. Zack jumped back and clutched the wound. It hurt, but he would just have to ignore it for a little bit longer in order to win this. "Did that hurt?" G said mocking him back. He grinned and came at him again, but this time he missed when Zack stepped out of the way and quickly attacked before G could recover. It would be the final blow for him.

He slashed at him sending a wave of energy slicing G in the back and throwing him to the ground. Zack stood there staring at him wondering if it really was over or not. It was hard to be sure. He looked around and realized that maybe it was. G had been losing blood the entire time and now the area was filled with it. It would all have to be cleaned up now. He knew that he would have to report this to Shinra. He really did not know what they would do, but after he told them he planned to tell Sephiroth. He wanted him to know about this. He would want to know.

G laid on the ground feeling absolutely nothing. He could see white circling his vision and he watched as Zack stood close by to make sure things were over. He could see it in his eyes that things looked bad for him. It was the first time in his life that he truly felt defeated. Now all he could think of was Loveless and the Goddess. The books he read all the time giving her an image in his mind. He had read it everyday and now they came back to him. Somehow it was a comforting thought knowing that she awaited him. He would return to the planet.

He closed his eyes letting the world fade and when he opened them he saw that place again. The place for the dead. White all around him in an endless expanse. He heard a voice somewhere off in the distance and instinctively went towards it. The light gave way to a little darkness with a figure standing off in the distance. "The Goddess." He whispered as he stumbled towards it.

As he got closer he realized that he was right. It was her after all. He smiled and held out his arms. He saw nothing in her eyes. No emotion or expression. He had no idea what she may be thinking, but that soon changed. Her expression went from the unreadable to the blatantly obvious. She did not look pleased. In his mind he heard her words reaching him. She was not quite what he had imagined. Nor was she actually the person he believed her to be. He held onto his thoughts of her though.

_It is not time for you to be here just yet._ She had said.

She felt anger towards him for some reason he did not understand. She made no effort to explain it and nor did he care. He was not going to die, but his injuries would be fatal. He guessed that he would have to thank Shinra for saving his life. He knew exactly how he would do that. When it was time, when he was better, he would destroy them! That was something he had always planned to do.

When she was finished talking she raised her arms and a strong wind followed. G felt himself being pushed away from her. Even though he knew he would live he wanted to stay a little longer. He had always wanted to see her and now he was. Something came with the wind. It reminded him of the lifestream. He guessed that is what it was and it carried him away. He pushed against it because of the feeling it gave him. It was doing more than simply pushing him away. It felt more like chains to him at the moment and he realized that is exactly what it was.

It was trapping him.

He closed his eyes unable to stand the sight anymore. He waited until he felt it going away and then opened his eyes. He was back inside his body again. Alive again. _I'm still here._ He thought. He could see that he was no longer by the wall, but underground. He knew that he must be in deepground or possibly beyond even that. He could not move and nor was he actually awake. He realized that he was somewhat locked inside himself. She had done this to him. He could do nothing more than recover and wait. He would have to wait until her bindings wore off. However, he was quite aware that he was not in this place alone.

* * *

Zack made his way back to his apartment thinking about what he should say. He did not really want to tell Lilia specifically about what had happened. He thought telling Sephiroth was a safer bet since G had done so much to hurt her. He had watched them take G's body away and they cleaned up the area as if nothing had ever happened there. Somehow he knew that G was not quite done in. Shinra took him back to the building and he knew how they were. He knew that Hojo would happily mess around with his body. It made him sick thinking about it.

He was in front of Sephiroth's door before he knew it knocking. He answered and Lilia was just inside. It looked like they were having dinner. "Can I talk to you...alone?" He asked. Sephiroth seemed to think about it, but nodded and came out closing the door.

"What is it?"

"Well...I was on patrol...and G came. He returned to Midgar."

"What do you mean? G died." He said not believing him.

"I fought with him, Sephiroth. He was injured, but very much alive." Zack said trying very hard to control himself. He did not want Lilia to hear.

"You fought him then?" Sephiroth said. "Is he..."

"Dead." Zack finished. "He appeared that way when the fight was over. He was fatally wounded, but Shinra took his body. I don't know what they may have done with it." He told him.

"I see." Sephiroth said turning away. His hands were shaking. "You saw him then...you didn't see..." He stopped thinking it might not be true at all.

"From the way he talked, Angeal must really be dead." Zack said with his head down. It really made him sad thinking about that. He had been his mentor, his friend. They all seemed to miss him a lot.

"Then it is truly over it seems. I doubt that G will be bothering us anytime soon if he is alive." Sephiroth said. "As far as Shinra is concerned G and Angeal no longer exist and neither does anything concerning them." He told him as he went back inside. "Thanks for telling me." He said closing the door.

Inside Zack could hear Lilia questioning him. He guessed that maybe Sephiroth would tell her and now it really did not matter. He just really did not have to be the one to do it. He decided to just go to sleep. It had been an exhausting night for him. He opened the door and made it to the couch before passing out.

**Author:** Sorry for being so random with the updates. I really don't have much choice right now and I'm guessing next quarter will be the same. G is totally taken care of for now. I don't know if this story will get as far as DOC or not…or if I'll have started a new one by then. I really don't have an ending point picked in the story just yet. I'm just kind of working my way up to it.

I'm hoping that in the next few or however many chapters it takes I can talk more about her dad cause that has yet to be cleared up and it is really important. It has to do with the plot and all that.

I will also try and have some more pictures drawn in the near future. Probably not in the next chapter though.

Also…I guess I should inform you that we are getting a month off and I may not update due to lack of internet at my apartment.


	53. That's just how it is

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Woohoo for stealing internet! Means I get to update a week early. You only get one chapter right now, but I have three more ready.

Ch. 53 That's just how it is...

**Part 1: **The War is finally over

In Midgar around noon every television turned to static. It was a bother to the people, but they knew there was a reason. Everyone knew what that meant. There was going to be some kind of announcement from the president. The static cleared and someone announced the president and also Godo. Some were surprised, but everyone knew exactly what was going on. The war was now officially over.

_"As you all know the war has lasted for quite some time between us and the Wutanese, but today...I am proud to announce that the war is over."_ The president said. People clapped and he paused in his speech to allow for it. It was loud, but only lasted for a few minutes as they were quietted. The president had a lot more to say laying out the terms in which the war had ended leaving out the unpleasant parts of it. The part where the Wutanese were being stripped of every inch of power they had. No materia, limited weaponry, and no claim on worldwide energy whatsoever. They were losing everything, but their lives. That was debatable though since most of them felt like they were losing their lives though it was mostly figuratively.

When it was Godo's turn to speak a reverant silence came over the crowd and those watching elsewhere. _"I can say that I am glad that the war is over and that it did not end in bloodshed. Things like that never would have ended the war. I know my people may not completely understand why we chose not to fight back, but I only did what was in our best interest. Another bloody battle would have only lost more lives and neither side would have won in the end."_

And with that the war ended.

After the meeting Godo returned to Wutai and got exactly what he had expected. No welcome from his people who now look at him bitterly. What he had said before was very true. They did no understand at all why they had not continued to fight them. Shinra was wrong for what they did to them and what they were doing now. The Turks had come with him and now they were making the rounds to collect. They went to every shop and took whatever was listed and even some things that were not. They made sure to look in every home including his own to make sure that no one was hiding anything from them.

All he could do was watch and try to make sure no one made a scene. It was the last thing he wanted. Thankfully even though they were angry they were also very loyal. He may have done something they did not understand completely, but he had never led them down the wrong path. They still believed in him and their way of life. All of them believed that one day Shinra was going to pay and they hoped that he would lead them to it.

He finally returned home after the Turks were gone. He did not want to go home until they were out of Wutai. He felt that it was his responsibility to make sure they only did what they came to do and nothing else. Shinra was stripping them of power, but they would not abuse his people. His wife greeted him with a smile and all he could do was smile back at her. It was the only thing he really looked forward to at the moment. He kissed her and then hugged her letting all of his worries float away. "I love you." He whispered to her.

"I love you too." She replied holding him tighter. He smiled feeling much better. It had been a while since he had felt like that and he wanted it to continue, but he knew that it would not. It was just the way things were.

**Part 2: **Waiting Game

Siren stood on the roof with her letter to give to the puppet. She stood there frowning as she read the words over and over while she waited. It was not what they wanted to know and she knew it. Unfortunately there was nothing she could do about it now. They had already told her what to do, but unfortunately things were more complicated than that. Especially since Sephiroth had taken her away from the building. She was not allowed to go near the soldier housing. She did not have that kind of clearance.

Finally the puppet arrived and she almost threw the letter at him. It glanced at it for a moment and then handed her one as well. She sighed and opened it. It was short and simple and it made her feel slightly afraid.

_Stop wasting time, Siren. You do not want me to come after you._

It said written by Scythe. She understood, but hoped that her letter would explain. She was surprised a little by the fact that he did not seem to know what was going on. He did monitor it so carefully, but she would never question him. She learned not to do that shortly after they first met. The puppet left and she turned to leave, but was surprised to hear someone down below her. Someone was in the presidents office. She was sure the fat man had already gone home. She looked down below and saw no one so she guessed that they were inside. She was glad for that. She did not want to be seen.

She realized that it was Hojo. She had no idea why he would be there and she guessed that he, like her, was not suppose to be there at all. She smiled a little bit feeling like now she had something to hold over him, but if she said anything then he might do the same to her. She barely had clearance for the lab much less anything above that. She sighed when he finally left. She guessed either he found what he wanted or gave up. Either way she was glad. She jumped down and left making sure that no one saw her where she was not suppose to be.

* * *

Scythe waited as he normally did. He watched Enshii sitting down amongst his puppets with his eyes closed. They were all waiting for Siren's report. All of them were wondering the same thing. Why had she not brought the girl yet. Scythe had looked, but The Abyss seemed to refuse to tell him much now. He guessed that since things were coming to the end that it was only trying to stop him the only way it possibly could. However, it had already showed him what he really needed and it could never take that back.

When the puppet returned it went to Scythe and handed him the letter before sitting down by its master. He opened it and read it. He frowned at it and saw the reason for the delay. Where they were time seemed to move very slowly and all of their patience was beginning to wear thin. Even he was becoming impatient.

_Two weeks ago she left the building with Sephiroth and will not return for another two weeks. However, Hojo seems intent on having her come back early, but he cannot seem to get the president to do it. I suppose he really is afraid of that man. I will have to wait until she is returned to the lab. She comes in for scheduled checkups, but he watches everything. There is no way for me to get her out without him seeing. I would be dead before I could take a step._

Scythe sighed and crumpled the letter before letting it fall to the ground. He looked at The Abyss finding it harder and harder to see into now. _Well, it seems you will have to wait for her just a little bit longer._ He said to it. He got nothing in return. He actually thought that there was no reason for it to do this now. It had been helping him for such a long time and now all of the sudden he could barely reach it. _Why do this now? Is it something you must do or do you choose to do it?_

_There is no choosing. I keep the flow of life. Nothing more._ The Abyss replied to him. It had been a little while since it had spoken to him.

_I see. Are you trying to protect it?_

_That is not my job. That is what He was created for._ It said. That brought him back for a moment. He knew who it meant. He had seen him first hand. He did not want to see him again. It was the only time he had ever felt afraid in his life. It was not a feeling he wanted to feel again.

"Scythe?" Enshii said suddenly. "What are we going to do now that we must wait even longer. Glaed is becoming a bit restless and so am I. Even the scientist seems to have become bored."

"Siren says we must wait two more weeks for her to come back. There is the chance it won't even be that long." He said. "We will have to wait, but I'm sure that all of you can find ways to entertain yourselves. Am I right?" He said.

"So we can go!" Glaed said. "Do whatever we want before she comes?" He nodded and she smiled evily.

"So long as you don't mess anything up there on that world. We don't need anything else to delay things further."

"I won't do that. In the end I want her. She has caused us enough trouble." Glaed replied.

"Yes, she has." He said. _Without what she has no one can live._ He thought to himself. _Everyone outside of here anyway._ He smiled at that thought. His dream. It was a bit delayed, but it was coming. All of the others left him alone there to do as they pleased. They honestly could not stand the waiting any longer.

**Author:** Four months is a long break for me to have since normally we get less than that. I already hate next quarter even though it hasn't started. It's my last before I graduate with my associates, but I am going to go for my bachelors. I feel like I need to in order to do better since there are things that get omitted in the associates program.

Sorry I couldn't update the last week of school. Way too many things going on then. My roommate was freaking out over her medication. It gave her a panic attack during finals! I was just too ready to leave that day. Things have been crazy during the break too. I hardly feel like this was a break at all except for the first week where I literally did nothing on purpose. That's it for now, but I'll update again next week. I have Glaed's story ready for you to read as well.


	54. Double Date

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 54 Double Date

I woke up to find Sephiroth already up and making breakfast. He had started doing that lately. He was actually cooking for me. I felt like I should try, but I could only cook a few things before and I doubted that I would do much better here. I was a little surprised that he could cook so well, but he also memorized things quickly. After reading a recipe once or twice he knew it by heart.

"So what is it this time?" I said rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"Eggs." He had just started cooking and I knew that when he said eggs they were not like normal eggs. They were almost the size of my hand. I felt sorry for the what layed that egg. When he was done there were eggs, bread, milk, and bacon that still tasted weird to me. We ate and he reminded me of all the things we had to do today. "You have a checkup today." He said frowning. "Afterwards we have that double date with Zack and Aeris."

"I know. I'm not looking forward to seeing Hojo. I always feel terrible afterwards. I hope it doesn't ruin tonight." I said staring at my milk.

"It won't as long as you don't let it." He said. I nodded and went to get dressed. I could not help frowning though. I really did not want to go and see Hojo today. Sephiroth joined me also getting ready. He was frowning slightly as well.

"Why are you frowning? He won't be looking at you."

"Actually he will. I have a checkup as well." He said brushing his hair.

"You never told me that."

"I didn't think I needed to." He replied.

"You could have, but I guess you didn't need to." I said sighing. "Lets just get it over with."

Our checkup was routine enough. Hojo did what he normally did and Sephiroth listened in on him to keep up with what he was doing. Some of it he seemed to be more careful about since he actually did know that we had telepathy. However, he could not tell if we were doing it or not.

"You know you still haven't told me what you and Zack talked about." I said once we were back in his apartment. It was bothering me that he just could not tell me. He does not really give me an excuse for it either.

"It's not important. Now get ready ok." He said smiling at me. I just sighed and went to change. I had bought new clothes and some other things to wear tonight. I wanted to look nice tonight for several reasons. Firstly, I would be meeting Aeris for the first time. I was a little nervous about that for some reason. Also, there is the matter of Sephiroth's gift. I want to look nice for him.

I got a nice strapless blue dress with a shawl to hide the number tattoo, but I also tied something there since I knew I would not wear it the whole time. I put my hear up and even took the time to put on makeup. (A stretch for me since I haven't worn it in forever. Also something I deemed unnecessary before I came to Gaia.) I wore the locket Sephiroth got me and some dangly earring's. I came out to get my shoes and he was in the room putting his on. He did not really change much from what he was wearing before. He never really did since he felt silly in anything else, which is something I do not really mind.

"So...what do you thing, Seph?" I asked him. He looked up at me and smiled as I twirled around for him. "You like it?" He just nodded looking speechless.

"You look beautiful." He told me. "You really went all out didn't you."

"Well, for you I did. It should be about time to go." I said looking at the time. We quickly finished getting ready and headed up to the restaurant. It was easier to eat there since we would not have to leave the building. Afterward we were going to sneak out and go to Aeris house. They really wanted me to see it. I knew the reason and I found myself feeling very excited about it.

"There you are!" Zack said ambushing us at the door to the restaurant. "We got here a little bit early. C'mon!" He said pulling us over to the table. "Aeris, this is Lilia. Lilia, Aeris." He said smiling. She smiled and nodded and I did the same. We all sat down both of us girls were by the wall and apparently they had already ordered drinks. Aeris and I got acquainted while Zack and Sephiroth talked. We were doing our own thing. Aeris told me a lot of funny stories. Weird things that Zack did.

"I'm really glad that we got to meet. I was worried that might not happen. I met Zack when you were gone and they told me about you. I'm glad to see you're ok." Aeris said.

"Thanks. I'm glad too. Zack told me all about you once I got back. He just couldn't contain himself." I said laughing a little. "He really seems to care for you."

"He seems to be telling everyone about me. He told me all about you and Sephiroth too. He told me that for a while he was jealous of you two."

"He was?" I asked surprised. I had no idea he had felt that way. She just nodded.

"He was just jealous of your feelings for each other. He wanted to have that."

"I suppose that now he does right?" She nodded. We kept talking for a while longer and slowly ate our food along the way. Sephiroth and Zack talked about a few things and every once in a while we would all chat together. It was a really pleasant start to the evening. I was having a good time and I honestly could not wait to go to her home. I really just wanted to see all of the flowers for myself.

"Is everyone done?" Sephiroth asked us. He was ready to go now. We had been there for about an hour. Everyone nodded and he paid as we had agreed and then we left. Zack and Aeris left the way they had come. The guards could see them leave and then we would leave the back way and meet up at the church. We waited a little bit and then left taking the stairs on the back side of the building. There was only one guard there and Sephiroth put him to sleep. After that it was no trouble at all making it down to the church.

Of course, Zack and Aeris were already there waiting for us. They were sitting on the front pew talking. They turned around when we came in. I noticed the flowers and could not help thinking that they were just so beautiful. There was almost nothing like that in Midgar. The way the light came into the church made it better. It was nearing sunset already. I also had to act surprised since I have never actually been here. Knowing about it and seeing it on the game and movie are one thing, but actually seeing it all in person was totally different.

I found myself kneeling in front of them and lightly touching them. It was just something I had to do. It really felt good to touch them. It had been a while since I had touched grass or even flowers for that matter. "They're beautiful. It's surprising to see them flourishing here of all places." I said. Once again it was something I had to do.

"Most people say that. I can see why. They won't grow anywhere else, well...they do grow at my house too." Aeris said.

"It's been a long time since I've even seen flowers." I said. "You don't bring me flowers." I said frowning at Sephiroth.

"If that's what you want then I will." He replied. I smiled.

"It's ok." I said shaking my head slightly.

"Well. To my house then?" Aeris said suddenly. We nodded and followed her and Zack through the slums. It was just filthy looking. I cringed the whole way. When we reached her house in its little hidden away place all of that went away. It was just a beautiful sight. Flowers everywhere with a nice little house. Once again the light made things better. There were no traces of the filth of the slums here. We went over to her garden and they let us be alone.

"What do you think of it?" He asked me. We had walked around it full circle.

"Just...beautiful." I said.

"When I first came here...I wished that you were there with me. I knew you would love this." He said. We stopped walking and he put his arm around me. "I love you." He said squeezing me slightly. Then he pulled something from his pocket and kneeled down in front of me. He seemed to feel a little awkward doing it. "I think I've held onto this long enough." He said holding it out to me. He opened it and there was a ring. It was not extravagant or anything like that, but it was beautiful and I was speechless. I had honestly expected it and I still could not help feeling that way. "I wanted to do this a year ago, but I couldn't. We still have two more weeks and we might never get another chance for this. Lilia, will you marry me?"

"I...uh." I started still taking it in. "Of course I will, Seph!" I said calmly after composing myself. He smiled and put the ring on me then he pulled me down to him and held me so close. "I love you." I whispered in his ear. He kissed me and smiled and behind us we heard Zack and Aeris congratulating us very excitedly. "I'm gussing they knew about this?" He nodded and we both stood up.

"Alright, now that that's done we can celebrate!" Zack said holding out a bottle of wine. He smiled and then we all headed inside. Neither Sephiroth or I wanted to drink at all. He seemed more wary of it than I was. I can only guess that maybe he has done it before.

"Seph?" He frowned at his glass and sighed.

"We probably shouldn't have too much. We'll get drunk long before they will." He said taking a sip. "At least it's good." He said. I sipped mine too just tasting it at first. It really was good and I drank it a little less hesitantly after that. Sephiroth did make sure that after so many glasses that we were not allowed to have any more. Zack and Aeris seemed to be pretty drunk, mostly Zack, and Sephiroth and I were almost there with them. We all finally passed out waking up a few hours later feeling pretty bad.

Sephiroth and I definitely had to leave before someone noticed that we were not there. Once we got back we went right back to sleep. We did not really have anything to do so it did not matter. My last thought before going back to sleep was that sometime soon I would be his wife. The only thing that bothered me was that meant I would have Shinra for a last name and I really did not want that.

We were woken up by someone knocking on the door. We did ignore them, but Sephiroth finally got up when they did not go away. "What!?" I heard him say angrily. We still were not feeling too well. I got up to see who it was. It was a soldier and he gave Sephiroth some papers.

"New orders, Sir." He said saluting him.

"I shouldn't be receiving anything yet. My term here is not finished."

"Sorry, Sir. I was just told to bring them to you."

"By who?" Sephiroth asked almost hissing it.

"Hojo, Sir. I still don't know why he had them." He said before leaving.

"Hojo." He said closing the door. He then sat down at the table so he could look them over. "Why would he have orders for me?"

"What do they say?" He went over them making sure that I understood. He was supposedly being sent away on what sounded like a bogus mission. I could see how angry he was getting. This is upsetting. It means that I would have to go back early and then we would not be able to get married. It could mean it might never happen. I was starting to feel angry and sad. "That just isn't fair." I said sadly.

Sephiroth was going over the papers again reading them very carefully. I knew what he was looking for. He was trying to find something wrong or perhaps a loop-hole to get us out of this. He just kept frowning even more and I could see that he was only getting angrier. However, after a few more minutes his expression changed. He was not quite as angry, but almost seemed happy.

"Hm. Looks like he messed up." Sephiroth said smiling evilly.

"What?"

"They look official to most, but I know better. I have to write these up and I know what should be in them. They're notarized, but the signatures are all fake. The president never signed these." He said smiling. "Well...then I'll just go and see him. I'm sure he'll be glad to hear what Hojo has done."

"What do you think he'll do?"

"Not sure, but forging fake documents is a serious offense. I'll let you know how things go." He said leaving. I knew Hojo could be an asshole at times, but this one takes the cake. The timing could not be worse. I sighed and waited. I could have listened in on him, but what he said made it clear that he did not want me to. He wanted to talk about it.

He returned looking triumphant. "Well?"

He sat next to me on the couch and put his arm around me. "You don't have to go back yet. Seeing those fake documents really lit a fire under him. He called Hojo up immediately and yelled at him until his face turned red." He said smiling. "It was nice to see Hojo like that. That fear in his eyes." I was trying to picture it in my head and all I could do was laugh slightly.

"What did the president do other than yell at him?"

"Cut his funding in half and took some of his toys away for a while. He'd have to do a lot worse to get fired. President Shinra still finds him usefull. If that went away he would discard him like that." he said snapping his fingers.

"Is that all he did? It doesn't seem nearly severe enough." I said.

"Can't really expect much more from him. He can't limit him too much otherwise things would go nowhere. He needs him to continue his research and experiments on us."

"SO! I'm just tired of him getting away with it!!" I said angrily. I crossed my arms. "Then again so is the president."

"I know. But don't worry. They'll get what they deserves in the long run." He said. I left it at that. There was no reason to go on talking about it. We had other things to talk about anyway. Somehow we needed to have a wedding before I went back and somehow it had to stay a secret from everyone. Of course, Zack and Aeris would be the only people other than the priest to know. Sephiroth said he would make sure that the documents stayed with us instead of getting archived where they could be found.

My last thought before actually going to sleep was that I would be his wife and take his name. Unfortunately his name is Sephiroth Shinra. That's not really the name that I want. I sighed and guessed that either he change his last name or I will just keep the one that I have now. Arne is not really such a bad name. I pushed that aside so I could actually sleep and decided to talk to him about it tomorrow.

**Author: **Well there you go. It's done and decided. Now they just need to actually do it before something else happens to ruin it. Of course, now Hojo is going to be pissed off, but don't think that he'll simply give up. He would never do that.


	55. Another Bonus!

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Bonus!

The Malicious Glaed

In Ivalice, during the time in which the undying ruled over the land and people, the Aegyl still flew in the skies visible to land dwellers. They lived alongside them, but never truly interacted with them. They kept to themselves mostly. The Aegyl looked very much alike only every once in a while having a child that was different. Each Aegyl had fair skin and dark hair. Every once in a while someone was born a little differently.

The Aegyl did not shun them as some might. They felt no reason to do so. Their society was not so strict as to do that. They knew that some cultures in Ivalice might do that, but to them it was nothing. These children were simply considered special as they were normally stronger in a certain area. Some in strength or intelligence or sometimes several things. It was considered a gift.

One Aegyl family was lucky to have a truly gifted child, but that came with other things as well. Things that might not be considered a gift. Their little girl was strong, fast and smart, but she was malicious in nature. When she played with other children she did things that would deliberately hurt them and she liked to tease others. That included her family. She was not an affectionate child.

As she grew the Aegyl started to feel the oppression of the undying. It eventually led them to flee into the skies abandoning the ground entirely. They ended up settling on what they would come to call Lemures. It was a world all on its own with a God of its own. They worshiped this God feeling less oppressed than with the undying gods of before.

Glaed went through life following orders as best she could living her life the way she was told it should be. She felt very oppressed by her people and their new way of life. In a way she actually missed living in the underworld of Ivalice. Of course now she was all grown up and held a lot of responsibility. She had shed some of her childish behaviors in favor of a more adult attitude. However, her malicious nature did not leave her. She still enjoyed seeing others in pain.

She was a guard and a very good one at that. She also noticed her peoples shortcomings. They had hardly explored any of their lands and they were continually becoming unemotional. In a way she was starting to feel the same as them. The way they lived seemed to be dragging them down and she felt like she was the only one that could see it. She was not even sure why she felt that way, but no one would listen to her. She really just wanted to abandon it. She wanted to leave Lemures and return to Ivalice. It was much bigger and she knew that with all the different peoples that she would have more opportunities.

However, her family and people did not seem to share her sentiments and would not let go. With the barrier around Lemures it would be impossible for her to simply leave on her own. The only thing she could think of to rememdy that was to just get rid of the problems. She only had to worry about her parents and superiors. It they were gone she would have done something they could never understand. They would have to do something. She knew that and she knew they would not put her to death. It was not their way. They would have no choice, but to exile her.

She smiled at the thought. It was too perfect. Too easy.

So she set out to go through with her plan. It made her feel strange and it would have consequences she never expected. She went home that day and acted normal. She watched her parents go through their normal routine and when she felt ready she simply killed them. She stood over them feeling nothing. She knew she should, but for some reason she just could not feel anything. She had no idea why that was. They were her parents after all.

She sighed and left. It was all she could do. She could not stop now that she had started. She only had a few more people to go and then she would be free...or so she thought. She found her superior still at his post. It was expected. He guarded a very sacred place and hardly ever left his post. He was the best...other than her.

"Glaed, what are you doing here?" He asked. He never got an answer and she did not give him time to react to what she was going to do. She knew that if he ever got the chance to fight back it would be hard to beat him. "Glaed...why?" He asked dying.

"I can't live like this anymore." She told him. Once again she felt that strange detachment. She hated that feeling. It felt too empty and she knew it was wrong. She turned away and flew off. She would return home and wait. It would not be long before someone discovered what she had done.

She was very right about that. When she returned home she found that someone had already found her murdered parents. "Glaed! I'm glad you're here." She said. "Your parents...they're..." She stopped her.

"I know. They are dead." She said.

"Who did this...do you know?" Glaed nodded. "Who?"

"I did." She said very calmly as if it were nothing. The woman said nothing, but looked at their bodies and then back at her.

"Why?" She said not understanding.

"I had to...you'll have to forgive me." She said holding up her sword.

"Glaed?!" She yelled as she tried to defend herself. Glaed beat her quickly enough and felt no remorse for having done so. She looked at herself and noticed for the first time the blood that now covered her. She smiled at it for once feeling something. It surprised her and she frowned. She really did not understand this feeling at all. She turned away and went to the edge of their little floating island. She looked down and there was one small opening in the clouds. She could see what lay beneath. Of course, all she could see was blue waters beneath her. It closed and blocked the view. She looked up to the sky and felt disgusted. Being an Aegyl means one should love the sky, but she truly hated it.

She sat down and pulled her wings forward. _What to do now. I care not to fly in these skies ever again._ She thought. She looked at her sword still covered in blood and considered the unthinkable. _Maybe if I get rid of them..._ She thought. The thought did not bother her. She knew it meant that she would no longer fly ever again. She might even die trying to do it, but she really did not care. Life meant so little to her lately.

So she extended one wing and with her sword began cutting it. It was harder than she thought it would be and it brought tears to her eyes nearly making her scream, but she did not stop until it was gone. She stared at her wing lying on the ground for what seemed like forever, It was too late to turn back now. She could not fly with only one wing. It would not support her. She cut off the other wing as well and sat there shivering from the pain. All she could do was wait since now she was cut off from her own world.

Someone would fly by and see her she knew that. She could not guess what their reaction might be. Of couse, they would not understand. How could they. She barely understood herself. But now amongst the pain she felt she also felt something else. A feeling she did not really know, but remembered. She had lived on Ivalice when she was little and had some memories of that. _I felt free then. We've only trapped ourselves here._ She thought to herself.

"Glaed!! Glaed! Wake up!" She heard someone shouting at her. She opened her eyes to find herself in the arms of another guard. He was younger than her and was more emotional than most. "Finally. I thought you were dead." He said looking relieved. "Your wings, Glaed, what happened here? Filano is dead and so are your parents...and Ren." He said looking at her body.

"I killed them." She said struggling with the words. She actually felt like she might be dying. "I killed them and I removed my wings. I can't do this anymore. I can't live like this."

"I don't understand, Glaed. You could have died."

"I don't care." She said sitting up. She could see that he had helped her. He had bandaged her wounds and did what he could to clean her up. "Anything is better than this life. I want to leave or die."

"They stood in your way. So you killed them. Is that it?" She nodded. "I see. You've done something unnatural to our people. I don't know what the others will do."

"As long as I can leave...it doesn't matter."

Glaed got her wish. She told them that if she stayed she would continue to kill them. Besides that she could no longer fly with them. That would make things much harder for her. It would be much better for her if they just let her go. They could forget her completely as if she never existed. She would finally get the freedom she wanted, but things like that come with a price.

In Ivalice she started to feel her emotions returning to her. She knew that she had been right. Something about that place made them that way. However, they did not all come flooding back at once. At first all she had felt was fear. She was back in Ivalice cut off from the Aegyl completely. She could no longer fly on her own and that made her feel a bit isolated. She had thought she would never miss the sky. After a short time anger accompanied her fear. She was angry at the whole world and those feeling seemed to stretch on forever. Anger, then hate and with those feelings came lust. She wanted to become stronger so she could kill whomever she felt deserving. She could do nothing more than become a sky pirate which in a sense gave her the ability to fly. A way of filling the nostalgia of her old life.

As a sky pirate people feared her and respected her, but she started to take things further than they needed to go. She made people fear her. She wanted them to. She gained more and more power and was becoming a threat to others. She saw herself as giving them a gift. The gift of dying early so maybe they would not have to feel the kind of pain she did. She suddenly started to feel regret for leaving her people.

There was a high price on her head, but no one could seem to bring her in for the bounty. She was too strong for them to handle. The dried blood stains on her clothing told them enough about that.

There were few options left for them other than to just seal her away somewhere and move on. There were places in the world where few went since they could not easily travel there. They would have to lure her there with something big. The only place they could think of was The Ridorana Cataract. There were many rumors about that place. It was hard to get to, even dangerous to get to. It was perfect.

They spread rumors that there was a great treasure there and indeed there truly was. They would wait for her at the top along with the Sun-Cryst that lie there. It worried them a little, but they knew they had something important to do. They were all very strong and knew that she would come alone. Hardly anyone could make their way up there and live.

When she did finally arrive she was surprised to find them all there waiting for her. She recognized them all. Sky pirates and officials all there to collect the bounty she guessed. She was wrong, but she did not care about them. She felt power there. The Sun-Cryst, something she knew very little about, was very appealing to her. It held power in it.

"Glaed. We cannot allow you to continue. We made sure that you would come here."

"I see. You started the rumors about the treasure here. I suppose that's not what you meant." She said glancing at the large crystal behind them. She was ready to fight them. She was sure that they were just like anyone else and that she would defeat them. However, they had help from someone else. She felt their presence. "I see you are not here alone."

"No. They too believe that you are now a threat." They said.

"As before you still want to control how we all live and die. Anything for your own gains." She said not speaking to the people before her. They understood.

"I only want to make sure that it happens." It said in response, but did not reveal itself to any of them.

"Whatever." She said lunging at one of them. He dodged, which did not bother her in the least. She wanted a good fight out of them before she ripped them apart. However, she was not quite prepared for what they were going to do. They summoned a Scion to help them and she was forced to fight him for a while giving them time to prepare themselves. Once the Scion left and they came back to the fight she had no idea what they were planning, but she was definitely not going to like it.

"You're done, Glaed." One of them said. They were all chanting a spell together as one and she felt her whole body going stiff.

"What's this?!" She yelled out in surprise.

"We're going to seal you away here. It'll be a long time before you return." Another said. She struggled as hard as she could, but the spell was too strong. They kept chanting deepening her binds and she started to feel herself changing. She did not fully understand what was happening. She felt herself being split. She could actually see herself and she could not seem to go back to it. _No! This can't happen. Was I really so terrifying to them?_ She thought. She could only conclude that she was and now saw no way out of this.

When they finished they chained her body up close to the Sun-Cryst. Only someone truly powerful could undo what they had just done to her. Glaed could only stare at herself as they left her there. "I suppose they have made me nothing more than a spirit. I wonder how long it will be before my body decays." She said. She walked around learning that she could not go very far from her body. She was powerless and alone and would remain that way for a long time.

* * *

Scythe found himself searching for someone with a certain lack of morals. He needed a killer. He traveled to a few worlds unsatisfied with the people. After some time he found himself on Ivalice. He was hearing rumors about someone that had terrorized them for quite some time. The stories were very old ones by this time. Once a sky pirate, but she had suddenly vanished. She had become nothing more than a story that parents tell their children in order to scare them. He decided to investigate and found out everything he could about her and where she had been seen last. He wanted to know where she had gone before suddenly disappearing.

That was difficult since years made people forget. By then most people only told stories about her and few of them had actually met her. They either did not know or hardly remembered. He found himself trying to pluck the information from their minds finding that much more reliable. It was all there in their minds clear as day, but when they had to say the words it just did not come out.

He only had Siren with him at the time and though she was very loyal she was better at other things. Together they managed to find her and learned that it was hard to get there, but it would not be for him. He could still fly on his own, but not Siren. He would have to help her. It was not too much trouble for them to reach The Ridorana Cataract. It was a breathtaking sight seeing the large waterfall and the small island that sat at its edge. He did not want to take the time starting at the bottom and working his way up. There really was no reason for that. He knew very well that she lie at the top sleeping away**.**

* * *

Years had passed and no one had come. Glaed guessed that she was nothing more than a memory now. She looked at her body. Being Aegyl did not really extend her lifespan, but she knew that her body had long been dead. However, the spell they used kept her from actually moving on. She could not leave unless it was lifted.

Suddenly she noticed someone outside. A man and woman. The man looked very powerful and intense. She focused on him instead of the woman with him. She seemed weak, but also very attached to him. They came inside and went straight to her body. She could have sworn that he had looked right at her. _Maybe he did see me here?_ She thought wondering if it were her imagination

"I see that her body has died. It has been a long time, but I can fix that." Scythe said. Siren merely nodded. She was not crazy about the idea of having another woman with them, but she would never question him. "You were sealed here. Cursed and bound to this place for eternity." He said to Glaed. She saw him looking at her and knew that he saw her there. She nodded. "I can lift it...on one condition." She gave him a questioning look. "You must do what I say. I can promise that you will not regret it." He said giving her a truly disturbing smile. Something about him frightened her a little, but she knew he would not lie. He had a reason for coming there and seeking her out.

"What is it that you want of me?" She said. She really was not even sure if he could hear her at all.

"You're a skilled fighter. Truly the terror I've been looking for. I've heard all about you. The fact that you are here now tells me enough. I need someone like you." He said.

"I see. Then I suppose I could go along with your terms. Normally I wouldn't, but I want this curse lifted and I'll do anything for that." She said. "I do have one request. I want revenge on them for doing this to me." She told him.

"Of course." He said before chanting quietly to himself. First he had to unbind her and then reanimate her body. Lastly he had to return her soul to her body. He hardly felt any resistance from the spell they used, but there was something else there. They crystal her body lay by. There was something about it. It was something that contained immense power, but he was not at all interested in it. Once all of that was done he had to explain to her that much time had passed. Those people might not be alive anymore. She had guessed that, but that was not going to stop her from punishing their children. "I have an idea. There is a certain person on this world that could punish them all." He said. He explained what he meant by that while also telling her what he was after. She agreed to it and they went to capture this person. It was easy and she did enjoy seeing them squirm.

When they first entered death she was a little weary of it. She was not quite sure where they were going. She felt something there. Or rather someone there pulling at her. She walked quickly following Scythe very closely. Once they reached The Abyss she understood more clearly what he had told her. She watched the man in pain as they removed the soul fragment and then he tossed him over to her. "Soon that world will perish. Without that fragment the world cannot live." She was happy to have him. The years had not changed her for the better. She was worse than before. Her lust for killing had only increased with her want for revenge on the ones who had sealed her away. Now they would pay and she would continue living. She would continue to kill in her mind ending their suffering.

**Author:** There it is. It fit to have her be one of the Aegyl. Since in the game living on lemures changed them from who they had been before it made sense that she would be restless with that life and the losing of her emotions thus turning her into the person she is now.


	56. Notes

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 56 Notes

Hojo found himself with a lot more free time after the tongue lashing he recieved from the president earlier. With equipment he could no longer use he had to reprioitize his time. He had spent little time going over the research that Genesis had done down in deepground. It was one of the few things that he had managed to keep. However, Genesis kept very detailed notes. They went into more detail than Hojo ever could and it made for a lot of reading.

He had learned what to look for in order to make things go by a little faster. He took notes of everything that he did everyday. Some of it including recording where he later recorded his own notes and findings. There was so much to go over Hojo wondered how long it would actually take.

"_This will hurt a lot." G said calmly. "You've never been exposed to unpurified mako I suppose." He laughed slightly. "Don't worry…it's not much. Don't want to kill you right away." He said laughing even more._

From the view of the camera Hojo could see exactly what G was doing to the girl. He was going to inject the mako directly into her bloodstream. He guesed that small amounts at first and then increase it as time goes the same way he himself had done with her. He had only done so in order to make her stronger, but he knew that G was not doing any of this for that reason. He could see that he was clearly insane and only intended to inflict pain. However, he did know that he was also trying to figure her out. Hojo knew that she was different and he concluded that G thought so too.

_He was putting an I.V. in her arm. Then he went over to a computer and pushed some things. A bright green liquid slowly flowed into the tube from the cieling. She squirmed a little, but clearly saw what was going on._

"_You seem confused by this." He said noticing how she watched it. "This is mako before the reactors pick it up. It goes through several refining processes. Some for energy and some for materia. Hojo took the mako that was made after the first refining process. It's still pretty raw material, but nothing compared to this." _

Hojo could see how proud he was of what he was saying and doing. It honestly made him feel a little sick. The way he spoke was odd.Hojo could see that it was hurting her and he also knew that this was where the bruises on her arms had come from. He had used purified mako to heal the wounds he inflicted, but over time they would not completely heal no matter what.

_He watched for a minute or two and then went back to the computer to stop it. "That's enough for now. You should get some rest." He said trying to sound concerned. "You'll be needing it." He said laughing. "We're going to have so much fun together!"_

Once again the sound of G's voice made him shudder. Hojo knew that he was horrible enough when it came to what he does, but he had no idea that G was so much worse. That lunatic took to mutilating her, but also took the time to heal her so he could only do it more. He watched as G insanely cut her open asking for he to scream just so he could hear it. It honestly reminded him of a serial killer. The things that he was doing in the videos was definitely something that a serial killer would do, but as far as he knew that was the only time he had ever done something like that.

Watching any of the video that G had taken then made him shiver. It was not something that he had ever considered doing. However, his notes were a different story. G made sure to document what he did, her reaction, how it reacted in her body, and the after affects. Of course, the amount of detail did make reading it a little bit boring.

He did notice that there was a DNA test done. He guessed that Genesis was only trying to find out her background. Her family and whatnot. Hojo himself had done the same thing, but came up empty handed. However, G had taken a very different approach to the test than Hojo had. In doing so he discovered something very interesting.

Her blood was strange. It was as if she were two people at the same time. One test resulted in finding her lineage to a small family that had lived in Corel at one point or another, but they were also sent to the prison in Gold Saucer. Further investigation learned that their daughter had wandered off into the desert and disappeared. A search of the desert would not turn up anything though. That would be too difficult to do since going in more than likely meant you would never return

However, he did another test and got completely different results. At first he got no results at all. Her blood did not match anyone. Whoever she was or had been she had no family whatsoever. It was strange that he would get results like that. Everyone was documented and put into the system at birth. It was just something they did to everyone. However, there were two different lists to go through. A civilian database. That included everyone outside of Shinra or at least all of the normal people. The other list included experiments like Sephiroth, G, Angeal, Lilia, and whoever else might be in there. It also included the Turks, all of the executives, and other important members of Shinra. Hojo had ignored that list of people, but now he could see that was a mistake.

After having the test compared to that list G was able to find a match. She was related to someone in Shinra, but Hojo could not see how that was actually possible. It was a mystery to him and for the moment he would have to wait. The answer to who it was was something G guarded. He made sure that it was kept from everyone. It was something he intended to keep secret and he guessed that there must have been a very good reason for it. It did bother him though. _Who could it possibly be?_

He decided to leave it alone for now. Just trying to decode the encryption G used to seal the record was a daunting task. He could not figure out how to bypass it. G was clever and hiding things was his specialty. He frowned and turned away from the computer screen sighing. "I suppose it can wait for now. Not much choice anyway." He said feeling frustrated. He had tried for hours to figure it out, but he honestly could not stand to look at it much longer.

Even if he could not access this one file he had still learned a lot about what had happened to her. Some small part of him actually felt sorry for her. He only felt that way because there was the potential for it to ruin what he was trying to do. G had done a lot to her. She was gone now, but she was going to come back. He went to check on his latest specimens.

These he kept very close to him. They were locked away from prying eyes. It was definitely something he did not want the girl nor Sephiroth to see. He tried very hard not to think of it when they were there hoping that would keep them from actually finding out. It was the only thing he was careful of. He opened the container hiding them. He could only smile. Two small tubes full of mako and two small specs of life. He only hoped that this time they would actually live.

For a while his attempts at doing this without the help of the girl was hard enough. He was starting to get the feeling that he was just not creating the right conditions for them. It was the only thing he could think of to explain the lack of growth he had seen from the others. These two were doing well enough. So far they were progressing and soon if they grew they would finally start to look human. He smiled evily and could not help feeling happy that for once things seemed to be looking up.

He did not really care that he was being punished for trying to get her back early. He simply wanted to try once more with the In Vetro. However, he guessed that it would once again fail. He wanted to keep trying all of his options just in case one happened to fail and so far they all had. He could only hope that they took their relationship further and actually had sex. He could see that Sephiroth was much more protective of her than before. It meant that there was a change in their relationship, but from his examination of her she was still a virgin. All he could do was sigh at that. He closed the case locking it tightly and then left the lab for a break.

He returned almost an hour later and tried once again. After failing at that for a while he was starting to think he needed some help. Unfortunately, that could be impossible. All of these records were suppose to be destroyed. Anything relating to deepground was suppose to be gone so no one could ever learn the truth. He knew that even though it was sealed things down there were still progressing. He had seen it when they drug G's body down there. Not much had happened since they found the girl. He knew exactly what G was doing. However, now there was nothing he could do. It was inaccessible to everyone.

He knew that because of these circumstances he would have to find help elsewhere. He was sure that somewhere he could find someone willing to do it for the right amount. Of course, he would never pay them for their services. No one could ever know. He sighed at the thought and tried one more time on his own, but once again failed to make any headway. He decided that he did need the help and immediately started looking. He hoped that they could get there quickly and solve this dilemma of his. His curiosity was beginning to get the better of him.

**Author:** Alright, well there is a hint as to her lineage. She is related to someone in Shinra and Genesis knew who it was, but he never told anyone. Of course, it could have led to a few problems if he had depending on the person. This is my way of introducing the next stage of the story. This part is going to start focusing around her father and who he is while also focusing on Scythe and what he is trying to do...sort of. Soon they'll further their plans for the wedding as well. Hopefully nothing will go wrong to mess that up...

Eventually I will have to go over what happened to G and Angeal after their little fall. As you know G turned up back on Gaia so what did happen to them? It'll be included once her father is revealed.


	57. Plans

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 57 Plans

The next morning we had to have a little talk about the wedding. We both had things we needed to do, but I had some concerns about it as well. We would have to do it like we did the date. It would have to be sneaky and no one could find out with a few exceptions. It meant that I would not get to wear a wedding dress, but I was not really bothered all that much by that.

"Seph. There is something that's bothering me."

"What's that?" He was trying to figure out when and how we were going to do this at the moment, but I could not wait.

"Your last name is Shinra. I really don't want to have that name." I said frowning at him. He just smiled and shook his head.

"Don't worry. You don't have to change your name. We'll worry about that later, ok." He said going back to what he was doing.

"Good. I couldn't live with it anyway." I said. "Besides, we'll have another wedding later...right?"

"Is that what you want?" He said giving me a questioning look.

"I want a real one. Not just the quickie we're doing now." I told him. I was picturing it in my head. Us being in a church, our friends and some other acquaintances sitting in the pews. It obviously was not going to be a big wedding since we had few friends and no family. I wanted to wear that white dress and walk down the isle, but I had no idea who would give me away or any of that. I just sighed thinking that it probably would never be like that.

"We will, but right now that is impossible. Something like that would be seen and Shinra would know." He said. I did understand. "They don't need to know about any of this. It's bad enough Hojo knows about us." I just nodded.

"Let me help you." I said moving closer to him. We were sitting on the couch with his laptop on the table. There were stacks of papers that he had printed off elsewhere along with some handwritten ones. He was definitely going through a lot of trouble for this.

"Ok. This would have been taken care of, but I've had to change my previous plans. The priest I had before won't do it this time. He's afraid that since we're doing this in secret that we're doing something bad. He doesn't want to get involved with Shinra like that." He said.

"Sounds like he's a wimp." I said. _Good riddance then. We need someone with a little backbone. It's not bad it's just secret._ I heard him laugh slightly and he was smiling. I guess he heard what I was thinking, or was responding to what I said, but I was not really sure. He put his arm around me and put the laptop in his lap so I could reach it too. I had picked up a few blank papers and a pen in case he wanted anything written down. We spent most of the day doing that.

The next day Zack decided to visit us. He seemed a little overexcited. We were eating lunch. Neither of us had done much today. We were taking a break after all of the work we had done planning the day before. "So how are things? Got any wedding plans done yet?" We nodded.

"We already know we have to do it soon before I have to go back to the building. We did manage to find someone willing to marry us on our terms." I said smiling. It was one of the things that had taken the longest. Sephiroth had to pay a lot of money in order to get him to do it. We mentioned that we wanted to keep all of the records and he nearly had a heart attack. It took Sephiroth almost an hour to fully explain the reasoning behind it and what we would eventually be doing with those records.

"That's great. You've got nearly two weeks to get it done and I suggest that you have all of the planning done at most by the end of the week. You should try to have the ceremony either at the end of this week or the beginning of next week. That would give you two some time together as husband and wife before you have to be separated." Zack said looking more serious. It was good advice and something we had planned on doing in the first place. The sooner the better.

"Don't worry, Zack. It'll all get taken care of. I'll let you know the details once we're ready." Sephiroth said. We both wanted them there for the wedding regardless of how it would be. They were our friends.

"K. Just wanted to check on things. I'd hate to see anything go wrong." He said before leaving.

"I still need to figure out what I'm going to wear and what we're going to do right after. We should do something to celebrate with them before our honeymoon." I said. Sephiroth nodded.

"You're right. We could go out to eat right after and I suppose that they'll have gifts for us. We could do that here. Of course, anything after that will be right here...alone." He said smiling. I felt a little nervous about that. Normally on your honeymoon you consummate the marriage, but I was still feeling a little afraid of that. I was not sure how I would react to him. I was more worried that I might freak out.

"I'm a little worried about that." I said.

"I know. Don't worry. You'll only make things worse that way. Lilia, you know that I would never hurt you." He said softly.

"I know. I'm not worried about that." I said sighing. "I'm more worried about what I will do. I just don't know if I'm ready."

"Won't find out unless we try." He said. "If you can't...then you can't. It doesn't matter. I'll still love you regardless." He said shrugging. I knew that was not really true. He was just saying that to make me feel better. It meant a lot. By then we would be married. It would matter. I decided to leave him alone for a while. Mainly I wanted to be alone. I still have yet to fully deal with it completely. Right now Sephiroth needs to focus on the wedding in order to arrange everything. I just went into his room and lay down on the bed for a while to think.

I got the feeling that I would freak out or something. I just could not see it going any other way. I closed my eyes for a moment resting them. I heard him come in, but I ignored him. I just felt a little exhausted. He sat on the bed beside me and lightly touched my arm. "Don't worry about it, dear. Everything will be fine." He said softly. I sighed and opened my eyes.

"Wish I felt that way." I said frowning. He just sat there smiling at me. "What?" He shook his head and laid down over me. He made sure that he was still looking at me.

"We could test it." He said grinning. I smiled slightly, but part of me wanted to pull back. I could feel the fear there in me just waiting. He started kissing my neck, which made me giggle a little bit. I put one arm around him and he was holding my other hand. His free hand took its time going down my side. None of this bothered me, but it was nothing. His hand stopped when it reached the top of my pants. At first he did nothing, but then he started undoing them.

He sat up a little to do that and I let him still feeling hesitant, but I did nothing. I was doing well so far. I had yet to freak out. After undoing my pants he slid his hand in them making sure to stay over the underwear. It was a strange feeling for me at first. It made me feel a little awkward. He was watching me and I was carefully watching him. "You still ok?" He asked me. I nodded so he continued. He carefully rubbed my leg a little and then brought his hand back up just letting his fingertips go beneath my underwear. He moved them back and forth a little bit and then removed them. He looked at me again making sure that I was still ok with this. I nodded again. _I don't know if you have to be that careful with me. _I said to him.

_Sorry. Then maybe I won't. I hope you're ready." _He replied. With that said he removed his hand from my pants and laid it on my stomach. He leaned down and kissed me and at the same time I felt his hand moving down closer to my waist and I felt him reaching beneath my underwear. Once his hand was inside he paused. I had only flinched when he did it. There was not much else to do. He stopped kissing me and looked me right in the eye. _Ready?_ I nodded, but felt unsure. I was not one hundred percent sure what he was about to do.

He started by slowly moving his hand further down and I started to feel a bit nervous. He stopped and then I felt him maneuvering two fingers until they were inside me. That made me whimper and stiffen a little. It was nothing much, but at the moment I knew I was fine. Unfortunately, I did not feel that this did much to test me. I still felt unsure. He smiled and removed his hand. "See. That wasn't so bad. You did fine." He said kissing my cheek.

"I don't know. I..." She stopped me shaking his head.

"Don't worry, Lilia. It'll be fine. I want you to feel comfortable doing this. I want you to enjoy it. If you can't then I'd rather we not do it until you can. Otherwise, it won't mean anything." He said.

"Ok." He got up to continue with the planning.

**Author:** She still needs to get over some things, but there's no reason she can't. It's mind over matter. Anyway there's some of the planning session out of the way. There'd be more to it, but I haven't really had the time. Next chapter probably won't have them in it or will have little of them maybe. Haven't started on it yet so it's hard to say.


	58. The Other Side

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 58 The Other Side

Angeal held on tightly to G as they fell. It was the only thing he could do to keep him from getting away. Their lives would end together. It was the least that he could do for his friends. G struggled as much as he could trying to get away, but realized that now it was too late. Even if he could break free of Angeal there was no escape for them now. They plunged into the mako and sank into it both feeling the burning sensation that came with it. It became more and more intense to the point where both of them cried out in pain.

The feeling only lasted seconds. They both felt themselves falling deeper into the mako, but Angeal was first to realize that something had changed. The mako was fading. He opened his eyes and saw only white all around them. It was only there for a moment or two. He could see G who was looking around curiously, but he was fading as well. He did not even seem to notice that it was happening and Angeal got the distinct feeling that he could not longer see him.

"I suppose this is the afterlife." Angeal said. G said nothing, but by now he was hardly even there. Angeal felt very tired. He fell to his knees and noticed for the first time that he to was fading away. _Is this really how it ends? Do we just fade away?_ He thought. He was very surprised when he saw sunlight. He was very confused. He looked around and saw buildings around him. The sky looked clear and the sun was shining brightly above him. _What is this place?_ He suddenly was not sure if he were actually dead or not. He was guessing that this, or maybe something like it, is what G was seeing as well. He honestly was not sure anymore.

He stood up, but he was hurt and he stumbled, but caught himself on the wall. He was standing in an alley and went out towards the street. He heard cars zooming by and people talking ahead. Once he reached the street he realized that this was not any town he had ever been to. It was fairly clear to him. The buildings, and even the people there told him so. There was also something else. Something he could not quite place. Something felt off. He honestly was not sure what to make of the feeling or the place he was in now, but he knew that he would have to find somewhere to rest for a while. His wounds would need time to heal.

He walked down the street ignoring the stares he got from everyone and how they whispered about him. He was not concerned with things like that. He was a little surprised that they did nothing to help him at all. He guessed that maybe they were just afraid to. He reached an intersection and noticed that the building on the corner was empty. He decided that it would be the best place to go for now. He knew that he should not try to go any further on his own. He would only make his injuries worse.

Once inside he noticed that it was abandoned. There was little left in the building at all. Graffiti lined the walls. He sighed and made his way upstairs. He felt better being up there. He could watch the people down on the street and maybe learn more about where he was. He looked over his things and realized that he had little left on him at the moment. Cure materia which he knew would be helpful, some defensive and offensive materia as well, but he was missing a lot of items. He hardly had any ethers left and at the moment he really needed them. He just sighed and started addressing all of his wounds.

He wanted to get better soon so he could go out and explore this town he was in. He wanted to learn all he could about this place. After he did what he could to heal himself he sat down in the corner to rest for a while. Unfortunately that did not last him very long. He awoke to find people downstairs making a lot of noise. He was not sure if they would leave him be or not. He could easily defend himself, but it was not something he really wanted to do.

They were very loud and from what he could tell destructive. He heard several things being broken. He guessed that they were drinking and then smashing the bottles. He frowned finding it all very silly. He just could not understand that. He did what little he could to learn from them though. It was the perfect opportunity. He had little mind power, but they seemed to have none at all. Invading their minds was the easiest thing he had ever done.

Most of them were teenagers each rebelling against something. There were a few adults with them. They were a gang. He cared little for all of that information though. He knew that they would not stay downstairs. He understood that they would come up there and bother him. Their minds told him that. They considered this place as theirs. It was their graffiti on the wall. He learned a lot from them. He felt very concerned about some of the things that he learned from them. Many of the things that he knew many of them had never heard of and if they had it was not considered real in their minds.

From what he could gather everything he knew was not real to them. He did not really understand, but was also starting to become caught up in their drunkenness. He had to pull himself away from them. He had not even realized that they were already making their way up to him. He did not quite feel ready for them. He had not been able to fully heal himself, but he felt fairly confident that they were too drunk to really put up a fight.

They came in laughing and stumbling, some of them even fell on the floor in their stuper. At first none of them even took notice of him, but there were some that were not as drunk as the rest. They finally noticed and make sure that everyone else did too. There was someone trespassing on "their" property. They all came closer circling around him so that he would have to go through them to leave. He frowned and stood up to face them.

They were all drunk and very confident in themselves. Angeal braced himself against the wall for now waiting for something to happen. He felt no reason to actually start a fight himself. He would leave that up to them. For the moment they were content to insult and threaten him and he just ignored it all. When that did not seem intimidating to him the all decided to get more serious. They all had weapons something Angeal lacked at the moment.

Their movements were slow and haphazard. They would hardly stand much less fight him. He made easy work of them taking them down as they came at him. It hardly took any of his effort at all, but they were all just kids. The adults were much stronger, but not really harder to deal with. They were a little smarter in the way that they chose to handle him. Instead of going one by one they all fought at once. They were just trying to knock him down, but that proved to be harder than they thought. They knew that if they could get him down it would take time for him to get back up and they could all come in and attack him.

Angeal knew what they wanted and did not intend to let that happen. He knew that if he got knocked down he would be in pain. A few of his wounds were still bleeding and he did not want to make that worse. He found himself being pushed against the wall. He decided that he would have to take on their strategy and show them how it was really done. He would kick their feet out from under them and they would fall. It was simple and took no time at all for him to do. He really did not see how they had not already done that.

Once they were on the ground the others realized they might actually need help and came to offer it. However, they did not want to accept it. They waved them off and came at him again with determination. Angeal decided once again to knock them down. They just did not seem to learn from their mistakes. He knocked them down again and they got up to fight him. He did it once again and they got up. This time they were more hesitant to fight him. The others just stood there in disbelief. No one had ever put up a fight with them and now they were seeing history in the making.

They all backed away from him saying how sorry they were for bothering him. They really could not stand to be humiliated any further. They left the abandoned building and Angeal watched them from the window. They ran down the street in a hurry to get away. He then went back to his corner and went to sleep. After all of that fighting he needed the rest. The sun was setting now and he felt very tired. He just hoped that no one else came in to bother him.

* * *

After the fall Genesis found himself standing in a sea of white. He felt things all around him. He knew that Angeal was there, but he could not really see him. He was seeing something else. This place was full of life. He was near a highway he knew. He really had no idea where he was and really did not care. This place was new and different.

"This place is not like Gaia." He said to himself. He reached out with his mind and found someone very familiar. _Angeal? _He smiled evilly and waited. He was coming closer and he was not alone. _It seems that you have spent quite some time on this world. _He thought. He reached out again letting him know that he was there. He wanted to see him. He wanted to see what he had been doing there. Obviously they did not end up in the same place.

_G? What do you want?_ He replied to his little hello.

_We still have unfinished business._ He said. He could see that Angeal was driving a car and appeared to have a family as well. _So who are they? Are they important to you? Cause I can take them away._ He told him. While he did so he stepped out into the road knowing that Angeal would not run into him. He would never endanger their lives.

The car screeched to a halt and Angeal stepped out after putting on the hazards. He said something to the woman next to him as well. "What do you want, G?"

"What do I want?" He said laughing. "What do I want." He raised his sword and smiled. "I want you to die, but I think they'll come first." He said glancing at the car.

"You won't touch them!" Angeal said. He had no weapon, but he would do whatever he could to defend them from G. _I can't allow him to hurt them._ He thought.

"Shall we get started?" G said getting ready. Angeal did the same and waited. He did not really want to make the first strike. He had some materia with him, but he was not so sure about using it in front of them. It was something he had tried to avoid. He could see that G had not changed, but he looked exactly as he remembered him last. He was still a little wounded, but all of Angeal's scars had already healed up.

G came at him and attacked trying to get around him, but Angeal dodged and grabbed his arm tossing him down into the ditch. G recovered quickly and shot back up at him and once again he did the same trying to trow him further this time. He had to get him away from them. As long as they fought there they were all in danger.

G glanced at the car seeing the worried look on all of their faces save one. A baby only two years old sat in the back sleeping. She looked like her mother, but G could easily see that Angeal was her father. He smiled slightly mainly to himself. _I suppose I will have to let her live for later._ He thought.

Angeal noticed that he was fixated on the car. He wanted to get past him and harm them. He felt that there was another reason. "Why can't you just be content to die!"

"No one ever wants to die in the end, Angeal. There are things we all still want to do. You and I are no different. Monsters until the end and I'm sure your family knows nothing of that. I want them to see you as you really are. I suppose I should try a little harder though." He said charging at him. Finally he was able to get by him and made his way over to the car. The first thing he noticed was that it was locked, but he would definitely be ignoring that. He used his sword to break open the window and reached inside tearing the baby from her car-seat.

This woke her and provoked screams from those inside. There was glass everywhere and the two boys in the back were doing what they could to stop him, but they were still young. The mother cried and screamed for her daughter back, but G just held her in his arms with the blade close at hand. "What now, Angeal? Such a cute little girl you have." He said smiling.

She cried angry that her car ride nap had been interrupted. She looked at her father thinking that he would take her and make her feel better, but she was in the arms of a stranger. It was very upsetting and something she hated. They held her wrong, which added to her own discomfort and they were loud. When he spoke it was not the soft lulling that her parents did.

"Don't hurt her, G. Please." Angeal said.

"So tell me...what is her name?" G said smiling.

He hesitated, but he saw the sword moving closer to her and decided to give him that. It was only a name and he saw little harm in that. "Lilia." This made G grin from ear to ear with delight.

"Is that so." He held her closer and whispered to her. Angeal could still hear him as well, but could do little. "We'll have a lot of fun together...when you're older." He said to her. She still cried, but the whispering had its own affect on her. She was not happy, but cried a little less. "Funny how much she cries now, but when I had her she refused to cry." He said.

"What are you going on about, G?" Angeal said finally. He was frustrated and furious. He was threatening his child.

"I see that you haven't figured it out. You named her after that girl I suppose." He said. "I know though I never told anyone. It was my secret and it will stay that way, but I think I'll tell you just for the look on your face." He said smiling. "That girl...is this girl. She was your daughter, Angeal. She was born on this world only to come to ours. Fate I guess." He said shrugging. "I must say I was surprised when I found out, but it was priceless information."

Angeal stood there shocked. He was sure that G was not lying. He took pleasure in doing things like this. It would not be a lie. He liked to be cruel. He had nothing to say about it. There really were no words for it. She had been there and he had never known. _I should have done more to protect her._ He thought. He knew that he could never go back and change things. The past is the past.

"Are you speechless, Angeal. I can understand. It must be shocking news after all that has happened." G said. "So what comes next?"

"I'm going to kill you!" Angeal said angrily. For the first time in his life he truly hated G. He honestly wanted to kill him purely for the sake of seeing him in pain. This was the last straw for him. He had gone too far now. "Give her back!"

"Oh, I never intended to hurt her. If I do...and she were to die. Things would change dramatically. She is very important don't you see. She single handedly changed our fate. Without her I would never get to have all of that fun. We wouldn't be here either." G said. He kissed her on the cheek and nearly threw her back to her mother. She had rolled the window down and was trying to reach her through the window. She was glad to have her daughter back.

Angeal gave a sigh of relief. He was thankful that she would be ok now. "It's time this ended. Your time is up." Angeal said. He intended to kill G. He honestly did not care if he were to die in the process. He was very willing to die so long as G went with him this time. He thought that they would die before, but he could see that it was not their time.

G attacked again and Angeal dodged since he had no weapon. He resorted to using his old routine of using magic again. He wanted to end this quickly enough. He did not want to drag this out too much. They were depending on him and she had already had one failed marriage. He did not want to add more sorrow to her plate.

They fought for a while doing pretty much the same as in their last fight. Angeal did make a conscious effort to try and keep the fight away from the road. He had told her that if things got out of hand she should leave and go home. He was not even sure if he would survive this fight. G was being even more aggressive than usual. He was very determined to win this fight one way or another.

"Don't think you will win easily, Angeal. Hurt or not I can still best you." He said as he furiously attacked. Angeal was now having a bit of a hard time dodging all of his attacks. They were unfocused and erratic unlike before. G normally had a strategy, but this time he seemed to be making it up as he went. He was definitely trying something different in order to confuse him. It prevented Angeal from predicting his movements and made it harder to defend himself.

The strategy worked well enough and it was not long before Angeal had scars of his own. His harms were bleeding and so was his leg. He stepped back trying to take a breather. G allowed it looking over his opponent assessing his condition. He was tired and losing a lot of blood. Without a weapon Angeal had to rely on magic and he was starting to run out of that G knew. It would not be long before Angeal had to physically fight back. Then G would have the advantage.

Angeal was strong and could hold his own in a fight, but Genesis had far more practice at it. He was a skilled fighter and also skilled with magic, but chose physical attacks to focus on. He liked how long range magic was a good aid, but he preferred to fight in close combat. He wanted to see their face when he hurt them.

As the fight drudged on Angeal was now on the losing side. He had lost all of his advantage and he knew that his family was still watching. He wanted them to leave in case they had to see him die. It was not something that he wanted them to see. It distracted him slightly and gave G the chance to get him. He ran him through making sure to savor the moment. The look on his face, and the screams from his family.

"Looks like you won, but I'm not done yet." Angeal said pushing him away. The motion ripped the sword out of him, but he tried hard to take it from G. He stumbled holding the wound with his free hand and gazed up at G.

"You'll die from that wound. There is little else to do." G said. He was not really worried about it. He had done his part. Angeal came at him wielding his weapon. Disarmed G felt nearly defenseless, but not completely. He dodged, but not quickly enough. Angeal used his last bit of strength to get him back. He cut into his leg giving him a nice large wound to deal with. Then he dropped the sword and fell to the ground.

G found himself lying in that sea of white. His sword once again in his possession he stood up and limped on. He used the sword as a crutch. He was not really sure where he was going, but he felt sure that he was being led somewhere.

Of course, Angeal was still lying on the ground and they all went to him fearing the worst. They suddenly realized that they were not alone at all. Some of the people that lived nearby had heard all of the commotion and come out to see. A few had called the police and now were asking for an ambulance.

"Is everyone ok?" Angeal asked. They were all standing around him...his family. They nodded most of them crying. The two boys crouched down beside him telling him they loved him. They all thought he was going to die. His daughter was a little confused and did not understand what she was seeing. She was too young to understand. _I will watch over you...I promise. _He thought as he watched her. She was the last thing he saw before he died. He was happy that they were safe. They had given him so much more than he had ever bargained for in life.

**Author:** I'm guessing I will be getting some reviews of shock or sad ones over this chapter. I tried really really hard not to just blurt all of this out in earlier chapters. I wanted to be really vague and then just throw it at you all. However, I don't think my character will be getting it like that.

This chapter was probably one of the most difficult for me to write. I wasn't sure how I wanted things to play out, but after several tries I think it came out well. Would've been done earlier, but since I'm graduation things are a little hectic.


	59. Preparations

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 59 Preparations

Finally all of the plans have been made and everything is set. I still felt worried about our honeymoon though. Sephiroth is pretty set on having that resolved before hand and decided that we would start doing more intimate things together everyday. It was something to get me use to the idea or so he says. What that means is that we take showers together now and also sleep differently than normal. However, that one will go a little slower. No sleeping naked...yet.

"Doing this will get everything more out in the open. Hopefully being together like that will help you get over your fears a little faster. I know you understand that I wouldn't intentionally hurt you, but a small part of you doesn't." He said. I just nodded feeling like it wouldn't work. I was pretty against doing any of it simply because it made me feel nervous. That was not a feeling I liked very much.

"I don't know. We'll try and see what happens."

"If you doubt that it will work then it won't. Have a little faith in yourself." He said trying to sound encouraging.

The wedding was going to be on sunday and I had a check up the day before. Things seemed to be going pretty well so far. We had a few days before the wedding and we would have a whole week as husband and wife. Then unfortunately Sephiroth would be reasigned and I would have to go back to the lab. It was something that both of us were dreading. It would be difficult.

I could tell that Sephiroth was worried about me going back there to the lab. Once we had sex Hojo would know. We would have to be careful and we have talked about it. I was going to have a check up in the middle of the week. He would definitely find out then. There was absolutely no way that Sephiroth was going to wait til after just so he would find out later on. I already knew that in his mind he intended to have me on our wedding night. It was the traditional thing to do and it also made the marriage complete. It normally is not a good sign when you do not do it then. He was still willing to wait if I needed to, but he really did not want to wait for long. That is the reason for all of his efforts.

It was strange the first time we showered together. We had been like that together before, but not like this. Not this close. He spent most of the time fondling me. It was not something I minded at all it was just strange. It was very different for us. There were a few times where I just stood there with my eyes closed. It felt really good. He even went so far as to help me bathe. I tried doing the same for him, but I was not as enthusiastic as he was. I felt too strange. I could tell that he was trying not to get too close to me just yet.

The second time was a lot easier for me. I felt less awkward being so close. He was pretty tired and decided to take a bath this time. He sat down and at first I sat opposite of him. He wanted a little time to relax in the hot water. I gave him a little time to himself before doing anything. I wanted to do something to help him. I moved over to him so that I was leaning over him. He noticed and moved his legs so I could come closer. "I see you're feeling better about this." He said. I nodded and laid on him. He put one arm around me and smiled. "I'm glad."

"Are you really that tired today. What all did you do?" I did not really understand why he was acting this way.

"Not really a lot, but I also worry a lot. I worry about you and what's going to happen once you return to the lab. That takes more of a toll on me than work does. I spent most of the time doing paperwork."

"I see. Well, you don't have to worry too much. I'm sure I'll be fine. I doubt that Hojo is just going to keep doing things the same. I'm sure he'll take more measures to protect me. I doubt that he just wants to give me up." Sephiroth vehemently shook his head.

"He's already tried several more times to get you back early. However, his threats can do little to frighten me. He's a very small man." He said smiling. I could not help, but laugh a little. For a little bit I actually forgot about what we were doing. I suddenly remembered that we were lying in the tub. The water braught me back to that. I did not want to move though. Being that close to him felt good. It was the closest we had ever been and I was perfectly fine with it. However, there was still that little voice inside me that wanted to move away. It made me think of something. Jenova was very quiet and had been for some time. I wondered if she had been bothering him at all either.

"Seph, there's something I just noticed." He looked at me. "Ever since I was kidnapped Jenova has not spoken to me at all. What about you?"

"Not since we found you. While you were missing...yes. She was very persistant, but soon gave up when I wouldn't listen."

"What was she saying?"

"That you weren't coming back. That I should forget you."

"Really?" He nodded. "I just find it strange that she's so quiet all of the sudden. I can't even feel her right now. She should have a lot to say now. She must hate this."

"You're right. She hates it, but is very silent about her feelings as of late. She is so far from my mind that I ignore her as if she weren't there. I never really noticed it."

"I just did."

"I've been so focused on you I almost forgot her altogether. I think I prefer that. Her nagging me was annoying to no end and she only had negative things to say about you. I could never just allow that. I fought with her a lot over it. It's more peaceful in my mind now that she is silent." He said. He really sounded glad to have her like this. _Now if only she'd be gone from us both._ I could not help thinking. It would solve so many problems in the future.

"Ok...maybe should actually bathe now." I said after a short silence. He smiled and sat up a little.

"Maybe." He put his arms around me and squeezed slightly. "Or we could do something else."

"No." I said laughing at him. It was a nice attempt, but I still felt fear towards it. "Sorry. I just can't."

"That's fine. Doesn't mean I won't try." He said. I moved back to the other side of the tub so we could wash. We just ended up washing each other. It just made things easier for the both of us. It was better since things were a lot less awkward now. I closed my eyes and just felt him. "Feels good doesn't it."

"Yeah." I sighed. "Seems so silly of me doesn't it."

"Not to me. To anyone else...maybe. They would have to understand." He told me. I just nodded. I felt bad for acting that way, but I could not help it. What was I suppose to do? "Don't feel that way about it. I don't mind. I love you."

"I can't help it. I just feel bad about it." He was done washing me now and it was his turn. We really did not talk after that. It was not really that we needed to anyway. It was better that we do not sometimes. There is almost no need to.

We just went to sleep afterward. Just one more day until the wedding.

Of course, the day before was pretty hectic. We had to check and recheck everything. I was the one doing it. Had to also make sure that the priest would not bale one us. Besides the fact that Sephiroth had threatened him beforehand. Had to make sure that no one found out unless we wanted them to. So far there were only a few people who were going to know. Zack and Aeris, Usher, Sheila, but she was sort of a maybe for a while. She was ok though and swore that she would never tell.

It was just so close to happening that I felt rushed and nervous, but there might not be a chance for it later. I knew that and understood, but I started to feel like it was not what I wanted. The problem was I had no one to talk to about it to. There was Sephiroth, but I need a woman to talk to. Unfortunately I could not just talk to Aeris whenever I wanted to.

I knew that it was starting to annoy Sephiroth. I refused to talk to him about it. I just did not want to. He would not really understand my feeling since he is not a girl. "I need to talk to Aeris. I want to talk to a girl."

"We can go over there later. Not right now." He said.

"I want to go now, Seph. Seriously, I need to talk to a girl." I said putting my hands on my hips. He sighed and just nodded not wanting to argue with me. Once we were there me and her locked ourselves in her room so we could talk uninterrupted. "Sorry, for coming in such short notice. I just needed to talk to someone."

"That's fine. I do consider you a friend after all." She said smiling. "I guess since your getting married tomorrow you're starting to feel nervous about it aren't you."

I nodded. "Yes. I can't help it. I know I shouldn't feel that way, but I just feel like it's way too soon for me."

"It is kind of quick I guess, but you've known each other for a long time. You love him don't you?"

"Yes. The only thing that I'm worried about it that night. Not really the wedding itself." I told her. She thought about it for a moment before answering.

"I think you shouldn't worry. He seems to care for you and I doubt that he would do anything you don't like."

"He tells me that all of the time, but...it just doesn't seem like enough."

"You'll be fine. I'm sure of it." She said. "Considering everything you've been through...I think this will be good for you. For the both of you." She said.

"You're right, I know. It just won't go away." I said. I went downstairs and found Sephiroth on the phone. He was still working things out. It looked like he was almost finished. "Almost done." He just nodded and after a few minutes put the phone away.

"Finally. Thought he would never get it." He said. "You feeling better now?"

"A little. Sorry about all this." He just smiled and held me tightly. "We're all set for tomorrow now. We shouldn't have anything to worry about." He told me.

"Great." I said snuggling up to him a little. "I think we can go now." I said. He just nodded and we said our goodbyes to them. It had been a long day and I was thinking that tomorrow may be as well.

**Author: **Sorry about not updating. Lots of things going on. School is suddenly being a pain in the ass. I found out that since I'm graduating that I can't register to come back yet. All because of a stupid freaking number. How gay is that? They can't do anything cause no one even cares that I'll have a shitty schedule when I come back.

Anyway...about the story...

I was going to make this the wedding chapter, but I didn't feel like putting that in here. I don't want to just jump right into it and I'm not really sure if I want to do the sex scene myself. If anyone wants to do it they can...that means the sex scene only and nothing else. I would worry about everything before and after. You can email me. I enabled it in my profile since I didn't have it before. Basically I'll give credit for that part and use that to write the chapter. I think it would be easier for me that way since school is kicking me in the butt right now.

I wasn't originally going to have one, but I changed my mind.


	60. Bonus! Scythe

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

**Bonus! **Decided to give you guys a bonus since I haven't updated in a while.

Ch. 60 Scythe

Scythe grew up during the age of sorcerers. They ruled the land over the rest of the people. Many of them took the time to learn magic so that they too could fight with them instead of becoming like slaves. Scythe had a talent for it. He was very good at it and started at a young age. Unfortunately his efforts to learn magic began with a tragic fire. He was attempting a spell and accidentally caught his room on fire. His parents and siblings became trapped in the flames and could not escape. None of them knew how to use magic. If they had it might have saved them.

He then became an orphan, but kept up his efforts to become a great sorcerer. He never stopped practicing. He wanted to be the best and would stop at nothing. He had never even felt an inkling of sadness for losing his family. He had always been very rational about things and he understood that there was no reason to blame himself for that when it was only an accident and he knew that could not get out. He understood that he could not have helped them at the time. It was a weakness he would never repeat though.

When he turned twelve he was quite good and could already beat some of those much more experienced than himself. For some time there was no one that could defeat him in a fight. That gave him a huge ego. He was suddenly thinking of himself as higher than his piers. Most humans were beneath him as far as he was concerned unless they were more skilled. He had yet to find someone that was.

In his mind unless they could best him in battle they were not worth anything. They should die. He certainly made sure of that by actually killing some of his opponents. There was one person that did manage to present a challenge. He was sixteen when they met the first time. Both of them thought in the same way and both were good tacticians. She put up a very good fight. For once he was enjoying a fight, but still thought he would win.

In the end he did win. She gave up realizing it would be easier to join forces with him than to fight him. She could see that his power would only increase and reach a level that hers would not. Ultimecia is a force to be reckoned with, but she was honestly afraid of dying and chose to live no matter what that meant. She saw this as a good opportunity to take advantage of his power. She felt that he would go far and it would be easy for her to tag along knowing how things worked. Someone or something would come along and get rid of him and her hiding in his shadow would keep her from harm.

"I'll make you a deal. You've won this battle, but I think we could work well together." She said. He gave her a curious look and smiled.

"Well, no one has ever offered me that. Most of them only beg me not to kill them once I've won. You'd better not disappoint me. Otherwise I will kill you." He said turning away. He walked on briskly expecting her to follow and keep up without saying a word or questioning him. She could not quite do all of that. She asked him a lot of things trying to understand him. She was hoping to find some kind of weakness, but could not seem to. He remained ever silent and secretive.

He told her nothing about himself and asked nothing of her. There was a reason for that though. He could care less if they actually got to know one another and he was not going to give her anything that could help her fight him. She would have to figure all of that out on her own. It was something that he did to everyone. He made it a point not to have friends and not to get chummy with them either. He still considered everyone lower than himself holding her as almost his equal.

She was strong and a good fighter. He actually felt that if they had met a few years before she may have won the fight and he would be in her situation, but he also knew that he would never offer to work with someone. Right now that was something he just could not do. People were expendable and now he had just that. She would be very useful for him and he knew that. If he really did not feel like doing something he could just make her do it.

They traveled around the world simply exploring and looking for people to fight. Scythe had to prove that he was the best in the world and could not stop until that was accomplished. It was the first step to ruling the world after all. Once everyone saw how strong he was they would begin to fear him and then he would slowly start to take over. He just wanted them all to see what kind of dirt they were. How small and pathetic humans could be through his eyes.

* * *

Years later Scythe found himself in a far different situation than he had imagined himself at this point in his life. He was twenty-five and things seemed to be falling apart. He had successfully conquered the world and was now facing a foe he had never foreseen. When he and Ultimecia took over there had been resistance from the people. They did not wish to be ruled by a tyrant and that is exactly what he is. A resistance got strong enough to fight him and being confident in his abilities he thought he would simply crush them.

However, things had gone unexpectedly. Something he had never imagined occurred. They had managed to call something very much not of their world. He had never seen nor heard of this being. The Guardians seemed to know him well and bowed before him. He took the shape of a person for their own benefit and he guessed that in essence he had no true form. He was dangerous and he could feel how intensely his gaze pierced right through him. It was a feeling he knew he would never forget.

This thing did not start with him though. Several things had happened. In everything that had occurred the Guardians took sides, which they obviously weren't suppose to do. He punished them forever binding them to humans like slaves. However, that had a catch. Humans had to fight them. They would have to gain their power. Otherwise they would exist in their own realm unable to move as freely as they use to. Forever unable to roam the earth as they wished on a whim.

Scythe almost felt sorry for them, but this gave him a new advantage. He had defeated many of them before already when they actually ruled over land themselves. He was proud of that. Diablos was still at his disposal and thus he would be able to escape, but where to was the real mystery. He was not sure when he would go in the end. Diablos' power was still a bit of a mystery to him.

Ultimecia was next to get punishment and he watched wondering what he would do with her. She was utterly afraid. She knew that running would get her nowhere. She could not run anyway since he seemed to paralyze her with his eyes. She could even hear him speaking to her telling her of her wrongs and what that meant for her. He was not going to kill her and that was something she found odd. She glanced over at Scythe and saw fear in his eyes as well. If he was actually afraid then the situation was worse than she thought. It meant there was no way out for her and she guessed for him too.

Scythe finally managed to gain some composure and think of a way out of this situation. He was not sure where he would end up, but he wanted to get away from there. From that thing. _Diablos, take me away from here. Now! _He thought to him. Diablos seemed to hesitate, but the punishment set upon him forced him to listen even if he disagreed. He had no choice, but to obey and he appeared beside him and took him away into his realm wondering what he could do.

_Death, The Abyss. I could take him there. He never told me where to take him._ Diablos thought. It was the only redeeming thing he could possibly do now. _You will get your punishment Scythe. You cannot run nor hide from it forever._ He told him. He let him know that eventually something would happen to him.

Scythe scoffed at him in disbelief. He was so sure that he had gotten away.

_He will find you eventually._

Scythe stood in the Abyss starring into the darkness. He found nothing there, but felt life. Diablos had taken him somewhere he had not planned on. He had no idea where he even was, but he was more curious about it than angry. He realized his error very quickly though. In his haste to leave his world he had neglected to give him any specific instructions. Diablos could chose where to take him. He had let his fear get the better of him for the very first time.

"You chose this place for a specific reason I'm sure." He said to the darkness. He felt a small pulsing life in that place and started to search for it. His eyes were useless there and he could do nothing more than hope there was nothing in the way as he walked. He followed for a while still trying to get use to the immense darkness. It seemed to go on forever and ever, but suddenly he started to see a small bit of light. _What's this?_

As he neared it he realized that the light was alive. It was a living thing. A soul or many souls. _What is this thing? Where am I?_ He thought curiously. Without meaning to his thoughts reached out to it asking questions and he was very surprised to receive a very clear answer.

_The Abyss._ It answered him.

"You can speak?" He said surprised. It felt alive, but he had never expected it capable of that. He never expected it could talk to him, but it spoke differently. Much the same as the Guardians had back on his world. "What exactly are you?" He asked.

_The beginning and the end of everything._

That only lead him to one conclusion. The notion of God on his world that he had heard of. The creator of all life, of the worlds and universe. This thing was it, but it seemed so small. _You are no God as they call him._ He thought.

_No. I am not. I myself am a creation. _It explained.

"Interesting." He said. It seemed to be constantly listening to him. "I want to know more about you. You said you are the beginning and end of everything...what did you mean by that?"

_I give life and take it. When a soul has lost its body it eventually comes here in the end and is recycled for later use._

When it told him that he began to wonder. If that worked for humans and the like would it work for a world. The Abyss controlled life so he guessed that meant everything."What about a world. How exactly does a world die?"

_A world has two souls. A fail safe. When a disaster happens and the world cannot take it the soul that resides on the surface will die and come here. Then the other one will follow. The world will then be reborn within a certain span of time. The soul cannot remain here forever._

"The soul on the surface. What is it?" He asked curiously. He had noticed that it had said that. Did that mean it was separate from the world somehow?

_A person._

* * *

Scythe stood there alone with The Abyss. All of his followers had gone off to do as they liked. He had no wish to leave. He was lost in memories. It had taken him so long to get to this point and now it was almost complete. Part of him could not believe what he had found or where he was. The fact that he was now doing things that he never imagined. He was suddenly allied with others something he never imagined. He had only allied with Ultimecia before, who now was gone and dead along with that world. He really had no regrets, but so close to the end he found himself stuck in the past.

He had realized quickly the implications of what this place was. His disgust for life itself had spawned his idea of destroying it completely. _If only things weren't so complicated. If that girl had remained on her world we wouldn't have had to wait, but that is the past. It cannot be changed so easily and now it doesn't matter. _"Show me Siren." He told it. He wanted to check up on her. It refused to do certain things for him, but this it still did. What did it matter if he looked in on her like this.

She was sitting at a desk pouting. She looked angry and annoyed. He could easily see that she was ready to leave that world and see it gone. He knew that she would rather be there with him. Her obsession with him made her loyal and he used that to his advantage. Once done with her he went on to check on all of the others. Glaed was the one he was most worried about. He had told them all not to go to Gaia. If they did anything to hinder his plan he would have to dispose of them permanently. After checking on them all he moved away and went back to his memories.

* * *

Enshii had become a bother very quickly. He enjoyed the unusual ability that he had. It was very entertaining and helpful, but there was also the fact that Enshii was a bit out of control. His madness and sadistic nature made him the true embodiment of a monster. He killed simply to kill with absolutely no regard. Scythe found him hard to control and decided that something would have to be done.

He could not have someone that could easily jeopardize everything on a whim as he did. He had no regard for authority. The only thing that he could think of was to put a spell on him. That way he would be more calm and listen to others better. It would be like a binding spell. The question would be how to put it on him without resistance. He knew how Enshii would react.

"I chose to come here to see what you were about, but I have no intention of letting you rule over me! I am not your servant, Scythe!" Enshii said to him. Scythe just smiled. "What's that look for?"

"You know nothing, Enshii. I speak to the Abyss who knows everything. You are very essential to the cause and I cannot simply let you go. If you were to try and leave you would only get lost and confused. However, I cannot continue to let you undermine my authority. Even Glaed, who is quite the blood-thirsty woman, heeds my words." He said to him smiling the entire time. "You will obey me."

"Never! I am no puppet for someone else!" Enshii shouted at him enraged. At the same time he braught out all of his able puppets to fight. He knew that they would never be enough to fight Scythe and that he himself would have to join them. Scythe was a very formidable opponent and he did notice that no one else was going to join in the fight. He was glad, but it also meant that Scythe was not going to allow them to fight him. That in itself was very bad for him.

His puppets fell easily to Scythe and Enshii tried very hard to keep from losing so soon. The fight had barely begun and he felt like he was losing. Scythe was strong...stronger than he imagined him to be, but he had a power that he did not. Scythe was a sorcerer and he really had no magical power of his own.

Scythe finally tired of playing with him, which took only minutes, and stopped him completely. The fight ended as Glaed and Siren looked on in awe or sadistic pleasure. Glaed mostly. Enshii looked on frozen and unable to move or react. Scythe had won and as he had said...what he wanted would happen regardless. He felt a sort of shame for the defeat and knew that once his spell was done he would cease to be himself. He would be nothing more than a tame pet for him to have around. The thought made him feel sick. For the first time he was truly bested and now to become a slave.

Scythe mouthed a smell saying it silently to himself. It was not going to be like other spells that required either no words or hardly any thought. This one had to be very structured else-wise it will fall apart. Once he was done he felt fairly satisfied by the end results. The spell was made to chain him down to his service in a way. He had to obey him no matter what. He could still think for himself, but essentially his personality as far as the sadistic side goes would be suppressed and hopefully the more logical side would rise to the surface.

Enshii himself felt very different. He felt sick at what he was now forced to be. He actually felt his own nature disappear and a new side of him came to replace it. It was different and he hated it, but now he was unable to express himself as he had before. He now felt trapped within himself. A beast in a cage with no way out or hope thereof. He felt like a part of him was dying and it might never come back.

"So, Enshii, will you do as I say?" Scythe asked experimentally.

Enshii nodded and hung his head low straining to hold the words in not wanting to answer the way he knew he had to. "Yes...Scythe...I will...." He hissed out. Scythe smiled and turned away. The spell he had used to immobilize him had worn off already. Enshii stood there for a moment feeling too strange. He did not like the confined feeling he had now. It was more of an emptiness that he disliked.

* * *

Now that it was almost over Scythe was feeling a bit of nostalgia for his old life and wondered what he would end up doing in the future. He knew that for a time there would be no life outside of the Abyss. The worlds would then slowly be reborn. He was unsure as to how he could stop that...so he guessed that he would have to find a way to destroy The Abyss itself. The only other question would be...would he survive it in the end. If the abyss were destroyed...would life be able to exist? _Would I die?_

**Author: **I did his a little bit different than the rest of them. There are details that I had in it before, but decided weren't quite as important so I left them out. In the other ones I only went through how they met him, but he is the leader and all that so I went all the way to the 'present'.

Anyway....

Sorry for taking so long. We now have only 10 weeks in this quarter because of the hurricane so everyone is a little bit screwed (it's already like week ? ) and I have to figure out what the hell I'm going to do for my web design class since she neglected to tell me everything. It's a good thing I've done some of that before....

Also I decided to give you this chapter first since I want to finish the other one. I know this probably isn't what you wanted to read first since I know you want to find out what Lilia and Seph are doing, but too bad. It's hard for me to write that chapter and I have little time for it as well, but I'm hoping to have it done sometime soon maybe in the next week or two and possibly have another chapter to post as well.... Course you know how well that has worked recently.


	61. To Have and to Hold

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Sorry for the hold up. Just wanted this chapter to be good and I kept forgetting things for some reason. Must be the stress….

Ch. 61 To have and to hold

Today is the big day and I am more nervous than ever. I know it is normal. It is something that most women feel before their wedding. It suddenly sinks in that they are about to get married to someone. Of course, no one has ever been in my position. I am getting married to Sephiroth. Someone who is not suppose to exist. All of the sudden I am reminded of that. That I am here on another world that for a long time I thought was not real. I knew that this was not going to be like a real wedding.

Usher was going to give me away. He had insisted on doing that. I was actually glad for it. Him doing that was more comforting than he knew. None of my family would be there or even know about this. I do not know if that is really true since a lot of them are now dead. I just wish that someone could be there with me, but many of them are worlds away. It was weighing heavy on me. Sephiroth noticed right from the start.

We got up and both of us knew what today was. I had hardly slept from a mixture of excitement and worry. Sephiroth had slept closer than usual as well. I guess that he was just trying to comfort me. Sometimes I have to wonder why I doubt him at all. I worry too much and I know it, but that is just how I am. I cannot help being that way. Sephiroth constantly tells me "not to worry". I tell him the same thing every time. He just smiles and laughs every time.

We met up with everyone at the church. They were all waiting outside and supposedly the priest was already there. We were doing this in the church in the slums so that there would be less chance of being seen. We all dressed up as if we were just going on a date or something. I made sure that we both looked good for this. He was not wearing a suite or anything like that. I do not particularly like the way he looks in them. He wore black of course. That is pretty much his entire wardrobe. Mine is much more colorful and I decided to wear a pale blue dress that faded down into white. It flares out around my feet and is easy to walk around in.

Everyone was dressed nice, but not too nice. We wanted to keep this small and secretive. No one else was supposed to know. Aeris was the one who gave me the most comfort. I was still feeling nervous about it. Sheila was just encouraging me to do it. She seemed happy for us both. Claimed she knew from the beginning that something like this would happen. "I knew for a long time that there was something between you two. It's been pretty obvious for a while though. Hojo definitely knows about you two. I don't know how much though." She said. I just nodded. There really was not much else to do.

Zack and Usher spent a little time talking to Sephiroth before coming to talk to me. A few minutes later we were all heading inside. I lagged behind everyone a little, but Usher grabbed my arm forcing me forward. "You'll be fine. Besides, I'm giving you away." He said smiling. "I've always thought of you as a daughter. Almost wish you could've been."

"I suppose. I guess out of everyone you were the best father figure I had." I said smiling. "I'm glad you're here, Usher." He just smiled and nodded since we had caught up to everyone. The priest was standing there in his robe waiting. Usher took me to Sephiroth literally handing me over to him. It was pretty much the only true reminiscence of a real wedding we would have other than the things the priest would say.

For the most part I hardly listened to him. I had heard it all before a few times. I had only attended a few weddings when I was on earth. I had heard it on movies too. I just stared at Sephiroth, who was doing exactly the same thing. I could hear him talking to me. It just made me smile. We were pretty much just going to listen for the important parts. Like the part where he asks if anyone objects to our marriage. No one here would dare do that.

"...speak now or forever hold your peace." He said. Silence filled the entire room. After a few moments of silence he went on eventually getting to the vows. I had thought of writing some myself or simply just saying whatever I felt at the time. Sephiroth had seemed alright with the idea and now suddenly decided to do it.

"We'll say our own vows." He told him quietly. The priest just nodded and Sephiroth looked to me. "Lilia, I love you very much." He paused sighing. "It's something I never imagined would ever happen to me. That I would find someone who loved me...that I could love. I always felt that I would be alone forever...until I met you. You changed my life completely and I couldn't be happier for it. You are the only person in the world that makes me truly feel good about myself. I would never give that up for anything. I made a promise to you years ago, when I first joined the military. I promised to protect you. I may not have held true to it as well as I may have liked, but I want to protect you. You're more important than anything else to me. I couldn't bear to lose you again. I will keep you safe." He finished and then put the ring on my finger. It actually felt kind of strange wearing it.

_Arittake no ai de kimi no subete wo Tsutsumikonde ageyou_

_mou ni do to kanashimi ga otozurenai you ni kimi wo mamoritai_

_Kimi wo mamoritai_

_I'll surround you entirely in all of my love_

_I want to keep you safe, so sadness never comes your way again_

_I want to keep you safe_

What he said made me feel good. I make him feel happy and good about himself. That is something no one can say. There are plenty of people that would love to be where I am right now. There are plenty of women who probably think that they love him, but for all the wrong reasons. Out of everyone in the world I was the one he loved and wanted to protect. I was the one he wanted.

"I love you, Seph. I always will no matter what happens. No matter what you do I will always love you. I don't think anything could make me stop loving you. When I'm with you I feel safe. It's when you're gone that I feel insecure." I said remembering all the times he had gone away on missions. I had felt more afraid for him than myself, but I had not really felt safe with him gone. "When we first met I was a little afraid of you. I knew that you were stronger and that you could hurt me, but I never actually thought that you would. Even then I felt safe. You looked after me then before we knew how we felt. You've protected me ever since that day at the party. I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't been there. I was afraid no one would come to help me, but you did. I think I knew then...that I really loved you. I saw what you were willing to do for me. When G took me I knew that eventually you would find me, and you did. I don't blame you or anyone for what happened. All of that is the past now. All I want is for us to be happy."

Of course silently in my mind I was saying other things. Happiness is not the only thing that I wanted. I was not sure how this would affect things. Would the events of the game still come true after all of this or not? If it does then how do I change things so that he can live? It is something I may wonder about for a long time. I could tell that he is very different now though. Neither of us hear Jenova's voice anymore. She does not bother me and has said little to me about this even to show her disgust. I put the ring on him and our vows were complete. We were almost done.

"I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride." The priest said. For a moment I felt very strange. It was almost finished. He kissed me and I could just hear Zack in the background counting the seconds. It was very passionate. I could feel his love for me at that moment. It felt very nice. Seven seconds does not really seem that long, but it felt long. He pulled away and smiled.

"Finally." He whispered. In his mind I could see him going thru everything that had led up to this. How long he had actually waited for this day to come. It had been very hard on him having planned all of this himself the first time only to have it fall apart. We had had to start over, but this time he had me to help him. Before it was going to be a surprise, but that was not something he had wanted anymore. He felt that there would not be time for something like that.

"Well. Just one more thing to do now." The priest said. "Sign here and then you can take them. Bring them to me when you're ready to go public." He said. We signed and he put it in a folder for us. After that he left. We spent some time chatting with everyone before we went out to eat. That was going to be the beginning of our reception. Everyone did have gifts, but we were going to do that at the apartment. We were going to sneak in the back. No one even knew that we left.

With so many people eating with us there was a lot of talking. Sephiroth and I ended up talking amongst ourselves mentally in order to be heard. Sheila was getting a little drunk and Usher seemed to be trying. I'm sure this reminds him of his wife. It will be a while before he really gets over it. Before he can be okay with it that is. He will never get over it. Things like that do not go away completely.

We had a good time with everyone. It was a good atmosphere. Everyone was happy when we left. After sneaking into the apartment everyone brought out there gifts. Of course, they had to be careful about what they got. There are too many things that I just cannot take to shinra with me. They would all have to stay here. Some of it was the normal gifts that couples get. Things for the home or whatever, but we did get individual things. Usher gave me a brand new pair of gunblades to use. Those I could take with me. He also made sure to explain to me that they were top of the line and all that so I should never have to worry about them.

The gifts were nice, but Sephiroth was too impatient all of the sudden. It bothered me a little bit, but I ignored it thinking that he had also waited a long time for that as well. They finally left and we were all alone. He locked the door very quickly. They were not getting the chance to come back in. He just stood there for a moment still facing the doorway. "Seph." I said looking down. There was something I had been thinking about all day and now was the only time for it. I had to tell him more about myself.

"What is it?" He said seeing my head down.

"There's something I haven't told you yet. Something I haven't told anyone about. I need you to know before we can do anything as a couple." He said nothing, but put an arm around me and waited. I sighed thinking that I had tried several times before to say it to him, but couldn't. Once again I found myself fumbling for the right words to say. _Where do I even begin._

_At the beginning._ He said to me nuzzling my neck a little.

_That's a little too far to go for this. _I said thinking that I was not really ready to give him my entire life story. I tried to get the words out, but hesitated every time unsure of how I should tell him. I finally gave up and decided that using my mind was the safer bet. I could not trust my mouth to say anything. _I...was born on another world. I'm not from Gaia, Seph._

_Like mother? You came here from another world?_ He questioned. I nodded, but had to elaborate. I was most definitely not like her in this.

_I didn't arrive the same way she did. I'm not even sure how I got here. I barely noticed the actual transition from that world to this other than the fact that I was inside and all of the sudden the sun was blinding me. _I paused for a moment gathering my thoughts a little. _I almost died that day.... I almost think that I did and that is the reason I look so different._ I said to him. He looked a little confused so I did the only thing I knew would help and showed him. He saw everything from when I got the call to getting in bed and waking up to him trying to stab me. He watched as we fell off the bed and were suddenly bathed in sunlight and the mystery animal that saved me.

_I don't know if you died or not, but if you did then how would you be here? It doesn't make sense._

_Doesn't make sense to me either. I never thought that a world like this really existed, Sephiroth. On my world...magic isn't real and no one can do the things that we do. Everyone is weak and normal. This world would be completely alien to them. It was to me. Magic was so hard for me to grasp because I didn't understand. I wasn't connected to Gaia the way you are. I had to feel it for myself. For you, or anyone here, it's instinct._

_Don't worry about it. It doesn't matter. You're here now, and you're mine. I'll take good care of you. I promise._

_You don't mind? _He shook his head.

"It doesn't matter where you came from. All that matters is that you're here with me and that we love each other. That's why I don't care. Otherwise I may react differently. That's definitely not something you should tell anyone else. It'll be our secret. Of course, it does explain quite a few things to me. Things that I noticed about you that seemed odd. Now I know why." He said smiling. He really didn't seem to care that I was from another world. I could be from underwater for all he cared as long as he could love me.

"Thanks." I said hugging him.

"You know…there is still one thing I haven't done yet."

"What?" He said nothing, but stood up and then lifted me up from the couch. It kind of surprised me and the look he had was strange. It was something I had never seen from him before. I was not really sure what to make of it. He kissed me and I felt the passion from before flowing from him. It was much stronger now though. I found it funny that he could just go right to that with no effort at all. It wasn't something that I could do so easily.

He walked into the bedroom laying me on the bed. The look in his eyes told me everything I wanted to know. He was more than ready and wanted to find out very quickly if I was or not. His feelings at the moment were so strong I actually felt them washing over me. His aura was very overwhelming for me. He was lying over me just staring down at me. He did nothing for a moment, but stared. "You look so beautiful. More so than ever before." He said softly touching my cheek.

He leaned forward and started kissing me on the neck. It felt so good all I could do was hold onto him and moan a little. I could not stop smiling and I could see that he was the same way. After a little bit of that he started to caress me as well. That literally made me melt in his arms. I did notice how slowly he was undressing me. He was trying to be romantic and go slow for me. In his mind I actually heard him tell himself to slow down a few times as a reminder. It made me smile knowing that he would do that for me. That he loved me that much.

Finally I just decided it was enough after a brief hesitation. "Just take it off, Seph." I whispered in his ear. He complied very quickly and removed the dress tossing it onto the floor. The only thing I had worn underneath that was underwear. He made no effort to remove them just yet. He seemed to be waiting a little bit for that. Of course, there is no reason to hurry otherwise this would be short.

"Honestly, I have never wanted you so much." He said and I felt his breath on my neck. I giggled. I could not help it.

"Really?" He just nodded in response. Now that I was nearly naked he took the time to fondle my breasts and even kiss them. He briefly looked up at me and I could see a small glow in his eyes. He was definitely starting to get very excited. I felt it emanating from him. I was starting to feel it too, but that nervousness came as well. It nagged at me, but I ignored it just wanting to feel him.

He got more excited and more active in his efforts to seduce me. They were working pretty well on me. I felt good and excited just like he did. I was turned on by everything he was doing. He noticed and took that as a sign. He removed my underwear and ran his hands over me. It was time for me to become more active in all of this. I had felt too nervous, but I had to get over that. _He's my husband now. I need to do this._ I thought thinking that I did not want to be afraid of it anymore. I was tired of that feeling, tired of the memories it drug up. It was time to end it.

However, the nagging suddenly increased. It was more than just a small feeling or voice in my head. The more he touched me the more hesitant I suddenly felt. I was trying so hard to ignore it that I was holding him tightly. He paused as my grip got tighter and tighter. "Lilia, just let go." He said. I froze for a moment before relaxing my arms and letting them fall to the bed. "It'll be ok." He said lying down on me again.

I relaxed completely for a few moments feeling him letting him remove the feeling for me. It was much easier than trying to do it myself since that only seemed to make it worse. "Better now?" I just nodded and he sat up to start actually removing his own clothing. He had neglected that on purpose hoping it would make it easier for me. It actually had though I did not realize it at first.

I started to help him remove his clothing. It did not really take long since he was more than ready to get rid of them. I threw them to the ground and he did the same. That nervousness came back once again now that we were both naked. It washed over me for a moment or two before I started to feel him again. His emotions washed over me making that feeling subside. I just looked at him and smiled. In the darkness I could hardly see him, but I knew him. Every curve. Those baths together had helped a lot. I finally felt ready.

He was sitting there waiting. I could see the glow of his eyes. It was kind of a haunting look, but I could see the love he felt for me. I noticed the way he took the time to look me over before doing anything. I knew that he was waiting for permission. He had promised to wait until I was ready. I had to give the word.

"Seph…." I paused and he looked me right in the eyes. "I'm ready."

He leaned forward and put both arms around me tightly. He was just taking a moment to feel me. I hesitantly did the same. He felt so good being this close to me. "I love you." I told him.

"So do I." I heard him say. He kissed my neck and I felt him moving slightly lifting himself up. He kept kissing me and the way he was touching me felt really good. I sighed feeling very pleased. Without any warning I suddenly felt him inside me. I gasped a little surprised, and in slight pain. It was a very strange feeling for us both. He paused afraid for a moment that he had hurt me a lot, but I waved it off. After a few moments I was fine and he started again. I closed my eyes and gripped him even tighter. He seemed afraid of hurting me so he went a little slow just to make sure he would not hurt me.

He pushed himself all the way in and I whimpered slightly, but it really did not hurt. I moaned when he pulled back. He started to figure out that he was not hurting me at all and relaxed a little. He began to do it faster after finding a rhythm he liked. I just let him do it and let myself feel him. I stopped thinking completely and only felt. His emotions started to feel stronger and stronger hitting me in waves and that only made me feel better. I started gripping the bed and holding him or whatever I felt like doing. I smiled the whole time and only looked at him a few times. I still saw that strange look in his eyes.

He seemed more animalistic at the time. He was starting to do it harder and harder making me cry out. It did not even hurt and I was a little surprised. It actually just felt better and better. We were both in ecstasy. He kissed me and even bit me a little on the shoulder. He did not do it too hard. I started to reach my peak and I could not control what I was doing at that point. He pushed hard and I gasped loudly and then moaned as he continued a little softer. I noticed that he was still being gentle with me. There was more that he wanted to do. He felt like that would harm me though so he chose not to do that. At least not right now.

He stopped and only a few minutes had actually passed, but it felt longer than that. He pushed himself away rolling over onto his back beside me. I could see him almost gasping for breath. I was doing the same, but not as bad. I rolled onto my side and lightly rubbed his chest. "Well?"

"I never felt scared at all, just nervous. It went away though." I said moving closer to him.

"And you were so afraid of how you would react. I knew you could do it."

"I know. We don't need to worry about that anymore." I said smiling. We kissed and laid there for a few minutes before getting up. He had to help me a little bit. It was a little hard to walk after that. We just cleaned ourselves up and he was telling me mentally that we were definitely doing it again before going to sleep. This time he would do things a little bit different to which I raised an eyebrow, but smiled. The second time was wilder and he hardly seemed himself at all. He had hurt me that time a little and paused afraid of how bad it might be, but I was fine. It only hurt a little thanks to how quickly he can react to things. As soon as he noticed I was hurt he stopped.

For the first time we were both very carefree. Neither of us took the time to think about what we were doing or what it would mean. Those things were unpleasant to think about and neither of us wanted that at the moment. It was our honey moon night and all we wanted was to feel happy for a while before reality set in.

Hojo was the reality. The way we had done things tonight was anything, but cautious. No protection whatsoever, but I suddenly realized I did not even care about that. He was my husband and I wanted children eventually. I knew that he would take care of us. He sort of felt like it would be difficult for us to have children. He honestly was not sure about everything Hojo had done and if he could still do it. I knew I could. Hojo was almost counting on it. When reality did start to settle in I reassured him.

"Don't worry. He already knows about our relationship. We promised that if I get pregnant he won't touch our child." I said. "I'm not worried. I know you'll take care of me…of us." I said kissing him goodnight. He did the same smiling.

"What would you feel if you were pregnant?" He said a few minutes later.

"I'd be happy. Maybe a little worried, but happy."

"So would I. I think I'm ready to be a father." He said.

"Goodnight, dear." I said getting comfortable. He repeated it and did the same. I fell asleep very quickly feeling very satisfied with everything. I cannot say I have ever slept better in my life.

**Author: **The lyrics after Sephiroth's vows are from Gackt's Love Letter album. The song is Arittake no ai de. Look it up on youtube if you've never seen it it's awesome. That's really the only part of the song that fits as far as this story goes.

Well anyway. Since this chapter is the one with a sex scene in it it was kind of hard for me to write. Not something I usually deal with in writing. So think whatever you want about it. Don't expect to see many more of them in the story though. This one is just a milestone for her. There is a lot more to come especially with Scythe and them still out there. Also the fact that she still doesn't know about her father and all that.

I've got two weeks left of school and then we get a break for christmas. I'll be able to write more then so expect me to update more often for a while.

Of course, school isn't the only aggravating thing in my life right now. This annoying person thinks he can impress me and my friends by catering to our likes...like that we like anime and are trying to learn Japanese. He claims to know it and then doesn't know what we're saying when we speak the little japanese we actually do know. He's totally going to get his ass kicked for laughing at the fact that my friend is engaged to someone. He keeps asking her out. He actually thought that the Inuyasha opening "Change the World" was in spanish. It's annoying me that he's doing this to my friends and thinks that we all don't know about it or care about it either. It pisses me off and I'm totally ready to give him a beat down. I would really like a japanese person to talk to him so they can see how he is mocking their language by pretending. I bet it would piss them off greatly.

Sorry for that little rant I'm just getting really pissed by the fact that he thinks that it's ok to act that way and he's only 19 fucking years old. He can't say the word...condom. He's just a spoiled little punk who is about to learn a very hard lesson. One that involves three girls kicking his ass. That is if one of my friends doesn't kill him first for insulting her and her boyfriend.

Again sorry for that just need to get it out and this is what I happened to be doing at the same time.


	62. Vacation Ended

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 62 Vacation Ended

The next week was spent doing very little. We hardly went out and spent most of the time at home for several reasons. It was more personal and he was going to be gone for a very long time. Longer than he had ever been away from me. It annoyed him, but it was his job and at the moment there was nothing he could do about it. It was something that he seemed to regret.

The only thing that worried me a little bit is that I had to go for one last checkup before going back for good. We had not exactly checked to see if I was pregnant or anything, but I really do not think I am. He does not think so either, but I would rather be sure. After all, a feeling is just a feeling sometimes.

We were both kind of relieved a little to find the test negative. Right now was not the right time for that. It would have to be one of the worst times actually. I went in for my checkup knowing that he was going to find some things different now that we had actually had sex. If he noticed he said nothing. He seemed oddly preoccupied. Sephiroth did try to figure it out and learned that it was the aid. Apparently she was acting so odd at times even he was beginning to notice.

It brought back some of my previous thoughts about her. There was something odd about her and I had no idea what that was exactly. Sephiroth guessed that she was getting ready to do something. He decided that it was not his job to keep an eye on her unless it pertained to me and at the moment neither of us knew what she was doing or going to do. For now he really could have cared less. His mind was more on other things. We had such little time left together as husband and wife and it just was not enough now.

"You're done. You can go." Hojo said absently. Apparently the aid was bothering him a lot. He spent most of the time just watching her every move. I got up with Seph's help and we left. I know that I am definitely going to miss just being able to leave this place when I'm done here. When I come back it's going to be right back to the chamber afterword to wait for more of it. It was kind of depressing to think about.

_Don't worry. I'll figure out something. I'll find a way to get your freedom of this place. I swear._ Sephiroth told me.

_It's ok. It's not so bad anymore. So it's ok if you don't...or at least if you don't soon._

He just shook his head to that. It was not ok with him that I had to stay there in the lab when he got to leave the building and the city. It just was not fair for me in his mind and he wanted to give me so much. Once we were back in his apartment we just sat down on the couch watching TV. It was just a humdrum activity that we could do together and snuggle.

Of course, the rest of the week passed quickly and it was finally time for me to return to the lab. It was so hard to get up out of bed for the both of us. He did not want to take me back and I was right there with him. Finally, we did drag ourselves out of bed and get ready. We tried hard to take our time so that we had as much time as possible. He was not even going anywhere until tomorrow, but I had to be back today. Hojo had made it that way. It was pretty much the only thing he got out of it all other than the checkups.

Sometime towards the end of the day after spending all day in his apartment he took me back. The one thing that Hojo had not done was mention a time. We took advantage of that completely. Even had a quickie before going back. That was fun! It was just a goodbye thing since we were not going to be seeing a lot of each other. He was not really even sure at this point where he was going. He was suppose to receive his orders today anyway. He was going to pick them up before leaving.

Sephiroth stood in the doorway of the chamber pouting a little bit. It was actually cute, but he was sad that he had to leave. He sighed a few times and then decided to give me one last kiss before going. It was all he could do. He refused to do anything else in this place since it would be way too explicit and Hojo could be watching.

I watched him mentally as he left and got his orders. It was going to be a long wait for him to come back. He was going to be spending a year away from me. The longest he had ever been away was for eight months. That was quite a few years ago too! _I'll be going to quite a few places. I suppose that with the war over now we have to get rid of the stragglers who refuse to believe that they lost._ He told me.

_A clean up mission. _I commented.

_Basically. I don't know why they can't have someone else do this. It's not exactly my kind of priority. These are all small issues that most regular soldiers can take care of. I guess they just want this to be over and done with. _He said sighing once again._ I do put fear into most people.... _He stopped that and we just talked more about the mission so that I was informed of what he was going to be doing. Zack was going to be here for a while longer so Sephiroth would ask him to look in on me from time to time. For him that meant once a day at the very least. I sighed and closed my eyes. _I'll miss you, Seph._

_I'll miss you too._

He told me before I went to sleep. I could feel him trying to help me sleep better without him there. It actually felt a little awkward being without him. Having him help me actually helped me get to sleep faster. Although, the only thing that lead to is a lot of weird dreams. People, only viewed as shadows, gathered around me feeling menacing. It actually felt like they were evil. There were a total of six shadows. Along with them there was someone shouting at me.

"Wake up! Lilia, you have to wake up before it is too late! Wake up!!!!" That voice sounded so familiar. It reminded me of Angeal. I was not one hundred percent sure it was him though. His voice shouted the same thing over and over telling me to wake up, but I could not seem to do it_. Why is it so important that I wake up? What's going on_? His voice started to fade and then was abruptly cut off in mid sentence. From then on I heard nothing.

**Author**: Well...I'm sure you can guess as to what happened. You can just read the next chapter to find out more.


	63. Feelings

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 63 Feelings

Sephiroth stared blankly into the chamber. He had been standing there motionless for almost an hour. The news had shocked him. Tears flowed freely from his eyes and he did nothing to stop them. _Why? Why is fate so against us?_ He thought over and over. He could only stand there gripping the side of the chamber bending the metal as he did so. Finally, he could stand no more and sank to the ground his eyes still fixed on her bed. Not again.

Hojo entered the room and paused actually surprised by what he was seeing. He had never seen such a reaction from Sephiroth in all of his life. His son had never cried or even shed a tear in front of anyone. He had thought that most of those emotions were buried in him somewhere where they could not be found. Obviously, the girl had meant more to him than he thought. He had only told him that morning shortly after he arrived at Junon to leave for the other continent. That was only a few hours ago. He had never expected him to rush back so quickly.

The emotions he saw or rather felt coming from him were very strong he could tell. He felt the anger lashing about in the air. He still had yet to tell him what really happened, but even he himself still did not quite understand. Hojo felt it wise though to leave him for now with his sorrow. Better to do that than suffer his anger and hatred. He new what he could do.

Sephiroth hardly noticed the presence of the old scientist. He cared little about who was there with him at the moment. Nothing else mattered, but finding her. _I must find her. I can't lose her again!_ He stood up and wiped away the tears. He could stand to cry no more. It did nothing to bring her back to him. He had to find out what happened to her. Hojo would probably know that by now. He glanced up at the camera before leaving. It was still there in the same place as before. He had better know. He thought his face twisting in anger.

"Hojo!" He growled. "Tell me what happened. Everything." He said in utter rage. He did not want to waste too much time. Hojo jumped at his anger knowing better than to upset him more now.

"Well, I suppose it would be that much easier to show you what happened. That woman, Siren I believe, didn't even bother to hide what she was doing." Hojo said bringing up the camera footage.

* * *

Siren stood on the roof waiting. She had spoken to Enshii's puppet and was told to stand by until someone came to "assist" her. She found that rather annoying, however, it was merely a precaution. She doubted that there would be any trouble. Finally, death opened up and she was a little surprised to find Simon coming through it. "Simon?"

"Yes. Scythe sees little going wrong this time. However, if you need any assistance I am here...just in case." He said smiling. "Besides, I want to meet her...the one who has caused all of us so much trouble."

Siren sighed and led him down to the lab. They were going to need a few things before they handled the girl. She was strong almost like Sephiroth and she wanted to have her sedated just to make sure that they got to the Abyss without a hitch. She grabbed a couple of needles and filled them with sedative. She kept one and gave the rest to Simon. She reminded him that they needed to be quiet. She really was not looking forward to fighting the girl right now. She wanted this to be easy.

They went down to the chamber where she was sleeping and Siren opened the chamber. They both paused at the sound the door made when it opened. It did not wake her so they relaxed a little bit. Simon waited at the door and Siren went in alone. She stood over the girl and smiled. It was finally time to end things and she could not help, but feel happy. "Soon you'll be dead little girl, and so will everything else...." She whispered.

"Hurry, Siren. We don't have forever." Simon reminded her. If they waited too long someone might come in and see them. It was a complication they all wanted to avoid. She just nodded and stuck the needle in the girls neck giving her the sedative. She flinched, but never woke. The sedatives that Hojo uses work quickly and almost instantly.

"There. She won't be a problem." Siren said dropping the needle to pick her up. She flung her over her shoulder and waited for Simon to open the Abyss for them. Once he did they stepped inside and her smile only broadened as death came into view. _Finally, I am done with that world._ She walked on imagining all the good things that awaited her. Scythe most of all.

"Faster, Siren. The dead are on the move." He told her. He was the only one that could actually see them. They were all around them getting closer, but if they ran it would be too late. They would reach the Abyss before they could do anything. "Run!"

Siren did as he said knowing that he was right. She felt them all around her. They knew exactly what they were up to and that it meant the end of everything. Life itself would be over. "They can't stop us now." She said to Simon.

"Don't be so sure, Siren. I'm sure there are still ways to prevent what Scythe is doing. The Abyss is all knowing, but it does not share all of its secrets."

Death faded away and they reached the Abyss. Both of them breathed a sigh of relief as they knew the dead could do them no harm anymore. They walked at their own pace to the center of the Abyss where the others were. "Soon it'll all be over." Siren whispered.

* * *

Sephiroth stared at the tape wondering what to do. They disappeared in a white mist. What was that and how could he possibly follow them? "Why would they take her?"

"I have no idea. I had been noticing how odd Siren was acting. However, I had no evidence that the girl was her objective. Any letters she got she disposed of after reading. She burned them all." Hojo said.

"We're not going to find her are we." Sephiroth whispered. He felt that it was more a fact then a question.

"I don't know. I can't tell you what they used to escape nor where they went. The only thing you can do is look." Hojo said still dumbfounded. He had no idea what that mist was or where it might lead to. He got the feeling that he was seeing something that was not of this world. _I suppose if we don't find her I already have what I need. I was hoping to get a little more from her though._

Sephiroth heard him and it only served to fuel his anger. He gripped Hojo by the throat and shoved him down into the console. He squeezed just enough to get the point across, but made sure he would hear every word. "Listen to me, Hojo. You will find out what happened to her. If you don't...I am going to kill you. This is not some lighthearted threat. You cannot hide from me. I will find you and kill you if I must." He told him. Then he let go and left the lab very quickly. "Send me that footage as well." He said just before leaving.

Hojo fell to the ground gasping for air. It was the only time he actually felt like his life was truly in danger. No matter how strong he made himself Sephiroth was much stronger. He could have snapped his neck like a twig. He was starting to regret a lot of the things he did. That girl had done more for Sephiroth than he thought. He was no longer the boy he could control. She had stolen him completely. "I should've been more careful." He whispered to himself.

* * *

Zack and Aeris sat in her garden staring at the ground. "I can't believe this happened again. Why would someone take her? What's the point?" He said. Neither of them could understand why someone would do this. Sephiroth had told him needing to talk to someone. Zack had decided to talk to Aeris wondering if she knew anything.

"She promised to find me if she were dead, but I haven't seen her. She's alive, but...where is the question." Aeris told him. She felt so bad for Sephiroth. They had only been married for a week. It was such a tragedy for him. She could see how much they had loved each other. She was also worried. Lilia had told her about Jenova and how she had controlled him before. She always seemed worried that Jenova would do something horrible with him. Aeris was starting to feel the same way. Without Lilia...what would he do? "I'm worried about him. What do you think he will do?"

"He'll look for her until he is sure she is nowhere to be found. Once he gives up...I don't know. I don't think he'll give up easily though. It's going to take some time." Zack said.

Sephiroth arrived and they both could tell that he was still very distraught. He sat down close by and merely nodded to them. "Well." He said looking to Aeris. She shook her head. "Good. I'm glad you haven't seen her. That means there is still hope." He said quietly.

"Don't worry. Like before...we'll help you find her." Zack said with conviction. He wanted to find her for him so badly. Seeing his friend like that made him want to cry.

"Thank you. I don't know if we'll be able to find her. Those people used something I've never seen to take her with."

"Like what?" Zack asked. He wanted to know so that maybe he could help.

"A white mist. It appeared out of nowhere and then vanished after they went inside." Sephiroth said looking at the ground. Aeris gasped when he said that. They both looked to her surprised.

"That has to be...death. Those people must be dead. I see that when the dead visit me. It is part of their realm. If they took her there...then there is a chance she may have died."

"If they were dead how could we see them like that? You're the only one I know that can actually see the dead." Zack said.

"Maybe someone brought them back to life. That might let them move freely between the realms." She said. It was the only thing she could think of that made sense. Both of them just stared at her for a moment astonished. She would be the only one to know that or even to guess that.

"Maybe so, but how does that help us? How are we to go into death?" Sephiroth asked. She just shook her head.

"I don't think we can. We would die there." She said. Sephiroth shook his head. For whatever reason this conversation reminded him of something Lilia had told him. She was from another world and she was not sure how she got here. _Maybe that's how she did it. The dead brought her here to save her from them. She was right after all about that woman._

"Sephiroth? Are you ok?" Zack asked. Both of them noticed the strange look on his face.

"It's nothing. I was just thinking. I don't know what to do. She could be anywhere." He said bringing his hands to his face. _What do I do? Lilia, where are you?!!_

**Author:** Ok...there you go. Scythe finally got her after such a long time and for him its been almost forever. Don't remember if I mentioned it, but they've been at this for centuries. Unfortunately the way this works is the living cannot enter death without some kind of help and that includes Sephiroth. He's not dead and technically never dies in the game. Well...ya'll will just have to wait until the next chapter to find out what's going to happen to her.


	64. Face to Face

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 64 Face to Face

I woke up to complete darkness. I wasn't sure why it was so dark here. It is very unnatural for the lab. Everything around me looked blurred and distorted telling me that I had been drugged. I could only guess that it had been the aid. She seemed to enjoy doing that to me. I heard voices around me, but the drugs made them hard to understand. Obviously it was about me. I was lying on the ground and I realized that there was a bit of light to see with. It was a soft light and I could see her. The aid. She was standing next to someone with a long cloak draped over his body. He seemed to ignore her and looked behind me at something else. I sat up alittle to see them better. It looked as if they had been waiting a little while for me to wake up.

He finally looked down at me and I could see his eyes. They were filled with harshness and darkness. His aura was strong, overpowering and completely evil. It was really the first time a person had ever felt that way to me. G did not even feel like this to me. _I suppose that there are worse people than him._ "I've waited centuries to find you." He said. "The Abyss has waited a long time as well." He said smiling ever so slightly. "Take a very good look at it. It may be the last thing you ever see." He told me still smiling. He was simply trying to scare me.

"I'll be the last thing she ever see's, Scythe. I want her!" Someone said from the darkness. She stepped forward just enough for the light to illuminate her. Her clothing was covered in blood and most of it dried. "You promised." She finished gripping her sword tighter in an irritated motion. She wore a simple blue body suit turning purple with blood. I found that slightly disturbing. Scythe, as he is called, ignored her and continued to watch me. He seemed interested in my reaction to the situation.

I was a little muddled from the drugs that I can only guess the aid gave me. I could feel others standing around us as well, but they seemed content where they were. Only her and the aid came forward. However, there was something else there too. Something alive, but was different from all of us. I sat up completely since I seemed free to do so and looked around. Behind me I could see exactly where the light was coming from. It was not just a light. It was living. There were so many voices and sounds coming from it it reminded me of my dreams. _What is this thing?_

"That is The Abyss. Keeper of Life and Death." Scythe told me. I got the feeling that he actually wanted me to know why I was there and how much trouble I was for them. Another came forward as well and instantly he reminded me of Hojo. I was a little surprised by him thinking that it was him.

"Don't look so surprised. You and I are from the same world. Earth. I was granted a second life. I find all of this very interesting. The things I have learned here would astound most scientists on our world." He said. I just stared at him blankly for a minute and he seemed to realize that he had forgotten something. "Forgive me. I am Simon. I was also a scientist on earth, but an unfortunate error on my part ended in my death. The Abyss here is the source of life and death. When something dies it must eventually come here. Once taken in by The Abyss it's then recycled and used again. So in a sense we are all reincarnations of someone else. Isn't that fascinating?" He said sounding very excited. I suppose for someone like him this would be an exciting discovery.

"I'm sure I might appreciate the moment more if I weren't going to die." _Though I don't really plan on doing that either._

"You're quite right. Such a shame." He answerd.

I just ignored that. A familiar sound had caught my attention. _That sound. I remember it. The sound of wood._ I looked on the other side of me and there was another man. His face was covered up and he wore blades on his fingers. Around him stood five puppets and I realized that they must have been the ones making that sound. They had been watching me for a very long time. There was one more person that I could not see and he made no move to come forward. I was fine with that. I looked back to Scythe wondering what he would do now.

"I'm sure that you're still wondering why you're here. Why have we brought you here?" He said. I nodded. I do kind of want to know why I should have to die here. "As Simon told you the dead come here when their soul leaves their bodies. However, planets also have souls. Two in fact." He said pausing to let it sink in. "One that resides in the planet…and one that resides in an inhabitant. You, however, are very special. Instead of having the soul of one world, you have that of two." Once again he paused for me.

_So I have more than one soul? Why me? I'm nothing special._ I thought. I don't see myself as anything special. Of course, there was obviously still more to explain. The others in view just watched and listened not wanting to interrupt him for anything. I can see how loyal they really are…or is it just fear?

"I see that you are still confused. Why don't you ask _it_ to tell you. I'm sure it will." He said motioning towards The Abyss. I looked over at it the question already ringing in my head. A soft voice came to me. It was quite calming, but I got the feeling of being pushed away. It had a soft silky voice that was very pleasant in this otherwise bad situation.

_It's because of your father.... _It said to me. That confused me a little. Why would it have anything to do with him. He was quite ordinary by all standards. _Your real father._ It stated clarifying for me. That made me wonder. I got a flashback of something my mother had showed me just before moving on. I had not gotten to see what the man looked like there, but there had been something familiar about him. _You will have little time. He intends to end it all. Everything outside of this place will perish._

_How will I know what to do?_ I said to it. The Abyss did not have time to answer me. Scythe was speaking telling them to do something. I had missed what he was saying. The two woman made me stand and I was still facing The Abyss. I looked back at Scythe to see what he was doing. He held out one hand towards me and was whispering. _A spell?_ I thought. Pain erupted in my chest and my body convulsed. They held me firmly keeping me from falling.

This pain was definitely new to me. It was strange to me that suddenly I felt like I was being emptied. I opened my eyes and saw something, a mist, leaving my body. My face felt wet and I only realized that it was blood when it dripped. The pain continued and it got harder to breath. Slowly they were letting go of me. I felt my arms drooping a little and there was less force when I wanted to pull them in. _Is he removing the souls from me? What do I do to stop him?_

My legs gave and I fell to the ground no longer supported by anyone. Scythe still chanted his spell making sure to finish the job. _What do I do?_ I thought looking at The Abyss. My vision was failing and I knew that soon I would be unconscious. The only thing I could think to do was reach for it. Touch it, try and grasp what I was losing somehow. So I did. What else could I do?

I reached out with one hand while I clutched at my chest with the other. The pain increased and my ears started to ring. All other sound faded along with my vision. The world turned white and I felt myself fall. I could no longer take the pain.

"Lilia, wake up." A familiar voice said. It sounded like my mother, but I could not be sure. When I opened my eyes she was there along with others. "There you are." She said smiling. "I'm glad to see you, but you shouldn't be here."

"Mom?"

"Lilia." I looked towards the voice and saw Angeal.

"Angeal!" I said my eyes tearing up a little. I sat up too and smiled at him. "So he was not lying." I said sadly. "I wanted to thank you. You did so much to help me." He merely shook his head.

"No. I...." He paused. "Had I known then, I would have done things differently." He said.

"It's alright, dear. She's forgiven you and so have we." My mother said. I wondered why she called him dear and why she looked at him like that. She had love in her eyes.

"Mom? Why did you...?" She shushed me and shook her head. Angeal was the one who decided to explain.

"Lilia. After fighting G with Sephiroth when they came for you, G and I left Gaia much as you left earth. I found myself on Earth alone and injured. Your mother was kind enough to help me and I wanted to return the favor, but I never imagined falling in love with her." She nodded. "When you were two...we were going on a trip. On the way we met G and he told me who you were before he killed me. I did what I had to to protect my family. After realizing who you were and what I had done I had to atone for that."

"It was you!" I said finally able to realize who I had been seeing in my dreams. "You were talking to me in my dreams." He nodded.

"I just wanted to prepare you. I wasn't sure about you and Sephiroth at first knowing what he would do."

_"_Do you know what is happening right now?! Is he ok?" I asked. It was something that worried me a lot. I was so afraid that something terrible would happen to him while I was gone. Mainly that he would listen to Jenova and the events of the game would start or even be accelerated.

"No, I don't." He said sounding sorry. "Unfortunately, here I can no longer see Gaia. I cannot leave here as you can."

"Yes we should go back now." Someone said. It was a woman. Her voice was lyrical and sweet. I turned around and saw from what I could tell was Gaia herself. I was surprised to see her. Next to her stood another woman who looked similar, but very different. I could only guess that she was Earth.

"Unfortunately, you may still be in danger when you return, but hopefully he will come to our aid." Earth said to me. I was not really sure who she meant, but I was ready to return to Gaia.

"Are you ready?" Angeal asked. I just nodded. I looked over at Gaia and she was fading turning back into the mist I had seen before. The mist floated over to me and I suppose returned to my body. The same happened for Earth as well confirming who I thought she was. "Goodbye, Lilia. I love you." Angeal said to me.

I smiled and hugged him. "I love you too." I closed my eyes when I hugged him and I suddenly felt arms all around me. For a moment I paniced, but I could hear Angeal comforting me.

"Don't struggle. They'll take you back to Gaia. Don't worry. But I must warn you…there's no way to tell how much time has passed on Gaia since you left." He told me.

I felt a little worried about that, but I also knew that there was nothing that I could do about it. I let all of the hands pull me down to the point where I was falling. I kept my eyes closed purposefully not wanting to see what was happening. I felt water all around me and the hands were still there. I was holding my breath not wanting to breath in the water. The hands let go of me and I just floated there for a moment in the water. I opened my eyes and saw nothing but an endless sea before me. I swam to the surface and gasped for air while wiping the water off my face so I could see.

I found myself in Ajit. Looking around it was very empty and lifeless. It was very beautiful though. I walked around not really going anywhere in particular. I just wanted to look around. I found the place in the game where Aeris prays. I stood there for the longest time just hoping that none of it had happened while I was away. Thinking about it made me want to cry. I reached out trying to find Sephiroth. I wanted to know what had happened. I found nothing. He was either blocking everything or too far away from me.

One thing I did notice is that I was lacking in clothing. I had on my lab clothes instead of my normal ones. Unfortunately there was nothing here. This place was void of almost everything. It made me wonder if either Shinra or someone else had taken the things from here hoping to learn more about them.

I went back to where I had started, which I had noticed was the same pool they bury Aeris in. _What do I do now?_ I was not really sure how to move on. What should I do other than find out what was going on. I am sure that most people will find it odd that I have no clue.

Voices caught my attention and I instantly recognized them from Shinra. Some of the Turks and Hojo. _What are they doing here?_ I had to hide. There is no way that I would willingly go back to that place. I decided that it would be better to hide in trees. That way I could see everything and they hopefully would not see me.

They came into view and I cringed when I saw him. Hojo really had not changed whatsoever. He was still the same man. He held his arms behind him as he always did and looked around. The Turks followed behind more slowly. There were others there as well, but they were not very important.

"Here we are again. The city of the Ancients." Hojo said absently. "Not many secrets left here." He said frowning. He led the way and they followed. He apparently knew where he was going. I watched them wondering exactly what they were here for. There must be something that he wants here. I followed them more slowly not wanting to be noticed. I had to try very hard to be quiet. They went to the area where you use the key in the game and Hojo took some time to examine the device. "If only their language weren't so foreign." Hojo complained. It actually made me curious.

I had not actually looked at anything very closely, but I decided that maybe now I should. I want to see what their language looks like. Maybe it is not as foreign as they think. The branch I was on started to fall and I jumped putting myself against the tree fearing they might see me. I watched them with my mind so I knew what they were doing. I could see that some were curious, but others dismissed it. Reno was the most curious. He was actually going to have a look.

_Damn, Reno! Why do you have to be like that._ I thought cursing under my breath. I had to move, but if I did then I would be seen. As he got closer I looked for a place to hide from him. I had to wait until no one would see me. The moment never really came and he got to me a lot faster than I thought he would. I guess he has gotten stronger since I left.

"Lilia!?" He said kind of shocked.

"Sh! Please don't tell them you found me!" I said whispering. He got a little closer and I tried my hardest to convince him in every way possible not to say anything. "Please, Reno. I don't want to go back there!"

"You know I have to." He said. I knew that he had felt bad for me back then. In his mind he was fighting with it. He really was not sure if he wanted to tell them or not. "If they found out...."

"I know, but they won't do anything too bad to you I'm sure. What they might do to me is different. You don't have to go through that." I said bringing tears to my eyes.

"Reno!? Find anything?" Rude said from below. Reno stepped back so he could see him and shook his head. I was relieved that he was on my side this time. Then he moved back out of their view to say more to me.

"Next time I will have to, but I won't this time." He said smiling slightly.

"Thank you." I said smiling back. I felt something strange then. A dark aura flying at us. I looked over and it was that woman. The one from before that had mentioned killing me in the Abyss.

"Lilia!" Reno jumped in front of me. "Go! You can escape before they see you!" He said. The woman stood there smiling at us.

"Hiding behind these pathetic humans won't save you." She said. "I'll kill them and then their blood will be on your hands.

"Go, Lilia." Reno said. "I'll hold her off." I nodded knowing that he would not take no for an answer. I jumped to another tree and he stopped her when she tried to follow. He was definitely strong enough to hold his own, but not strong enough to defeat her.

_Please don't die, Reno._ I said to him. I could hear him thinking, _don't worry about me._ I smiled and kept on going. I just hope that no one has to die because of me.

**Author:** ok. The end took me a while to figure out. I wasn't sure about what I wanted happening when Lilia returned to Gaia. This idea just came out of nowhere and believe me I had plenty of other options. Most of them I didn't like once they were written out. Anyway I will elaborate more on what happens in the next chapter. There will be a little fight scene with Glaed and Reno. I wouldn't ignore that in any way. It may be in chapter 66. In the next chapter you'll find out a little more about what is going on.

Sorry for taking so long. It was being rather frustrating when I couldn't figure out exactly what I wanted to do, plus I hardly have time to write anymore. Classes, work, and homework are taking up a lot of my time right now. I'm ready for break to start. (1 more week!) I am happy though. I get to see Miyavi in three weeks and my roommate might pass out. :p It will be funny if she actually does. For those who don't know.... Miyavi is a japanese singer. He is visual kei, and speaks better English than most Americans can. (It's very sad, but true.) He will be at Anime Matsuri, makes me wonder how they afford him though.


	65. Inconvenience

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 65 Inconvenience

Reno found himself falling through the trees in Ajit glad that he only hit limbs that broke at the slightest touch. He was happy that Lilia was alive and well. He was even glad that he had gotten to help her a little bit. He did know that if he ever saw her again he would have to take her in…or at least try. The woman he was fighting now was strong and merciless. She did not hold back and even as strong as he was he did not manage to last long with her.

When he hit the ground his vision went black. He heard someone calling his name. It was obviously Rude. "Reno!" Rude rushed to the side of his friend bringing the other soldiers and carefully looked around for the attacker. Someone had done some major damage to him and now they would pay. Hojo stood in the shadows watching. He was by no means a weakling, but he was not going to fight at a time like this.

"Reno, what happened?" Rude asked hoping that he could still hear him.

"Fool! That's what you get for meddling in others affairs. You're lucky you lasted so long." A woman said. Everyone looked up into the trees for her. She was there standing on a limb staring down with a strange grin on her face.

"Who are you?" Rude asked. Reno still lay there with his eyes closed listening. He was resting hoping that if something happened he would be capable of fighting back.

"You pathetic little humans don't need to know." She said in a very condescending voice. Some of them took offence to it, but said nothing. She just laughed at them and disappeared into death. They weren't worth her time. Hojo was taken aback by what he saw. _It's the same as when she was taken. What could it mean? Is she here somewhere?_ He thought briefly before coming out from the shadows and examining the damage the woman had done to Reno. He was actually quite impressed. One of the best Turks they had fought her and lost in mere minutes.

"Reno, what happened?" Rude said lifting him up a little. Reno coughed and then tried to answer. He had gotten the wind knocked out of him when he hit the ground not to mention all of the other wounds he had sustained during the fight.

"She came out of nowhere…had to defend myself." He said. He gave Rude a rather odd look telling him instantly that there was a lot more to the story than that, but he could not say it here. Using hand signs he told him to tell him after he was healed. He nodded understanding.

They left Ajit rather quickly after that. Reno's injuries were serious enough that they needed to return to Midgar as soon as possible to remedy the situation. It was merely a precaution now though. It was rare for them to have serious injuries now that the war has been over for quite some time. There are occasions where rebels will get brave and do serious damage sometimes injuring people. The recent events brought back memories for Hojo. The girl had been a very integral part of his research. Her disappearance forced him to focus on other avenues. Losing her had never hindered him other than the annoyance it brought him. He was not entirely sure he should tell anyone about his suspicions.

* * *

Glaed found herself on Gaia doing something that should have already been taken care of. She kept looking back on what happened wondering what had gone so wrong. Everything had gone perfectly after they captured her. She could only guess that there was always a way to counter what they were trying to do and The Abyss never told Scythe. She could only guess that he had never asked. It was annoying that now she had to be the one to track the girl down now.

He had told her to go to Gaia on a hunch that she might have been sent there. It was honestly the perfect place to hide. There she had friends that would protect her and if they found people she had known there was a good chance of finding her. She knew that he was right. It was the obvious first choice albeit a dumb one. They would find her.

He had been right. She had hardly been there for an hour when she spotted her with someone. She grinned broadly and swooped in closer to them. She wanted the girl to know she was coming and so she landed in a nearby tree just so she could have a look at her first. The red head with her stepped in front of her protectively and she smiled more. _Fool._

"Hiding behind these pathetic humans won't save you." She said. "I'll kill them and then their blood will be on your hands. She told her plainly. It was the truth. She wanted to kill him in front of her so that she would clearly understand.

"Go, Lilia." Reno said. "I'll hold her off." Lilia nodded and then left briefly glancing back. Glaed tried to go after her, but he got in the way. "You're not touching her." He said knocking her back.

"Fool." Glaed said to him. She was not really much for talk during a battle unless it amused her and now was not the time. She attacked ferociously trying to end him quickly, but she was a bit surprised that he was able to handle her well enough to fight back. She was actually a little impressed, but that did not last. Within minutes she had him disarmed and beaten. She sighed and landed in a nearby tree deciding if she really wanted to continue or not. She was not really in the mood. _She's probably long gone by now. I'll have to start over. He won't be pleased with this, but there's nothing I can do. It's to be expected._ She thought.

"Who are you?" Rude asked her. She saw them as dirt and would never give her name to them unless they could best her.

"You pathetic little humans don't need to know." She said in a very condescending voice. She then laughed and returned to death. It would be faster for her to look this way, but first she would have to report to Scythe. However, one more annoyance was the dead. They were becoming more aggressive than ever and she now found herself running to The Abyss.

"How went the search?" Link asked.

"She's there, but she got away. She still has friends there on that world, but some time has passed. My only real question is…."

"Is that man still there?" Link finished for her. She nodded. "If he is there could be a huge problem."

"It's possible."

"He's not in a good mood right now." Link warned her before she moved on to tell Scythe.

Scythe stood there staring angrily into The Abyss. It almost seemed to be laughing at him. He could not believe that he had missed such a detail. A countermeasure like that should have been easy to stop, but he had not. Glaed stood behind him for a moment with her head down. He sensed her, but said nothing for a long time. She chose not to speak seeing that he was in a foul mood. "Report." He said finally.

"She is on Gaia. However, there are people there that are very willing to help her. It may not be so simple to get her back. There is also the question of Sephiroth. I do not know if he is still there or not. If he is…he will surely protect her." She said. She remembered all too well that he was part of the reason it was so difficult to get the girl in the first place.

"Good. You will return to the planet and search. Enshii." Enshii came forward and bowed to him. "Gather information and find out what happened while she was gone. How much time passed and anything having to do with people she knew." Scythe said. "Siren, Simon, and Link, you will help Glaed search the planet. Hopefully that will save time. Do not fight unless you must. Don't do anything unnecessary." He said mainly looking at Glaed. She frowned, but nodded her understanding.

"Don't worry…we will find her." Enshii said with his puppets surrounding him. Scythe ignored him. Part of him was not worried about it. She could run all she wanted, but she could not run forever. Another part of him saw all of his plans beginning to unravel. He wondered if he would finally have to go himself and retrieve her. It was a risk he did not want to take. _Should I have to leave, I also forfeit my life to him. I would have to be quick._

**Author: **Decided to spread out the information a little bit. I'm finding that not having a lot of time to write is actually helping me write better stuff. I get to think about what I want to do and by the time I start writing I have much better ideas. I'm tired....

Anyway...went to Anime Matsuri! We saw Miyavi. We were only five feet away from him at one point and didn't even know it there were so many people there. Waiting for about four hours or more sucked though. Then they forced us to go thru the showdown too. Oh well...nothing we could do.


	66. Years gone by

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 66 Years Gone By

I left Reno to fight her and felt kind of guilty for it. For a moment I almost stopped and went back to go and help him. However, my mind would not allow me to do that. If I went back there and was caught something horrible could happen. I did not really fully understand what was really going on, but I knew enough. I still had to find out what was going on on Gaia. How much time had passed? How was everyone doing?

I was heading towards the coast and I was honestly not sure how I was going to get back to the mainland. Hojo and them had come by helicopter there. There was no way I was going with them. I was running through the forest when everything suddenly went dark. The trees, grass, sky, birds, everything was black. Everything had a thin white outline around it. Part of me freaked out. _What's going on?! Where am I?_

The trees moved and turned towards me as if they were watching me. It was kind of creepy. Birds flew in the darkened sky. I watched animals scurry around my feet. Everything looked so different, but I knew them. It reminded me of my shadow. Everything here moved like a shadow and looked like one. I stood in awe of it all. It was new and I had no idea how to leave.

In front of me stood my shadow. She stared at me curiously for a moment and then took my hand and started running. She was smiling broadly. I was not really sure if she were happy, or something else. It kind of scared me a little. We ran for a little bit, only a few minutes and then she yanked me in front of her and pushed me forward hard. The light was blinding all of a sudden. I covered my eyes and let them adjust.

It was very strange that I was seeing the sun shining so brightly. In the forest it had been a dim light, but not now. I looked around and found myself standing by Midgar. _How did I manage to go this far so quickly? Did I go through the shadow realm? How did I even get there? _Looking at myself I found marks from where she had touched me. I tried to wipe it off, but as I started to it began to turn into mist and disappear. It bothered me, but I had to let it go. _Well…I'm here. Now what do I do?_

I walked along the fence looking for an easy way in. I was not finding one. I sighed not really wanting to climb over the fence. I looked up at it seeing the barbed wire. _If I try hard enough I guess I could jump over it._ I frowned at it and stepped back so I could get a running start. I ran and then jumped over landing hard on my feet. I was still a little weak from my ordeal. I took a moment to recover and then moved on.

I picked a spot to rest and while I did that I reached out and listened to the people of the city. Most of them went on about Shinra and what they were doing. Everyone here seemed to have lost so much over the years. All of the reactors were complete now. There were a lot of complaints about that. A lot of people were very indifferent towards everything just living their lives. It felt really sad to me. I found out that Avalanche was around now and causing some commotion. Most people did not really know a whole lot about them.

"You ok?" Someone said interrupting me. I looked up and was caught by surprise. "Did you hear me?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." I said looking at them. There were three. Her and two men.

"You don't look fine." She said. "I'm Jessie!" She said smiling. Behind her I heard snickering and she instantly turned around and glared at them. They shut up pretty fast. "Ignore them…they're just a bunch of idiots."

"Oh. Um…I'm Lilia." I said standing up. She held out her hand and we shook hands. She was being really friendly. It felt really weird.

"You look like you need something else to wear. I think I have something you can wear." She said looking me over. In her mind she was a bit jealous, but she genuinely wanted to help me.

"You don't have to do that!" I said shaking my head. She was still holding my hand.

"No, it's no problem. C'mon!" She said dragging me along with her. Part of me was glad, but the other part of me was very worried. _What if someone who knew me sees me? What if they say something and the wrong person hears?_ I really did not want anyone to hate me for something they were ignorant of.

"By the way I'm Biggs and this is Wedge." Biggs told me smiling. Both of them were looking me over. I'm sure that the lab clothing was not helping at all. I sighed and ignored them. We were heading to sector seven that much I could tell. I was actually going to go to see Aeris. She would understand.

"Here we are!" Jessie said. "Seventh Heaven" it said over the door. _I wonder if they're in there or not. _We went in and Jessie went upstairs for a moment speaking to someone. My guess was Tifa. I was right too. She came downstairs, smiled at me, and then gave me a sad look. She pitied me.

"Lilia, this is Tifa." I nodded smiling a little bit.

"I think you're clothes might be a little bit small for her, Jessie. She can try some of mine. Not like I can wear some of it anyway." She said frowning.

"Thank you. I don't know how to repay you." I said.

"Don't worry. We like helping people." Jessie said. Once again she grabbed my arm and dragged me upstairs to rummage through clothes. She pulled out some and we went through and had to create an outfit. Things that were suppose to go together fit me wrong, or only part of it fit. The girl in me liked doing it, but part of me was annoyed that it was so hard to get clothing. "That's it! You look great." She said jumping up and down. It looked like she enjoyed the company of a woman. Maybe she was tired of being stuck with the guys all the time.

"Thanks, Jessie. I think I should go though. There's someone I would like to go see." I told her.

"You have a friend here?"

"Nearby. I should be fine now." I said smiling. She smiled too.

"Come back anytime, ok." She left and I followed. When we got back downstairs the door slammed shut and Barret stormed in cursing. He paused when he saw me. I was new so I understood. Cloud was behind him and he looked at me very briefly, but then sat down. _He doesn't remember me._ I noticed that there had been no recognition in his eyes. In a way I was glad, but that told me things I did not want to think about.

"Who the hell are you?" Barret said giving me a curious look.

"Barret!" Tifa shouted. "Be nice!"

"Sorry. I was just leaving." I told them.

"Going already?" Tifa asked. I nodded. "Glad we could help. Be careful, there are plenty of scumbags out there." She said glancing around the room. She was obviously joking about them.

"I'll be fine. I'm tougher than I look."

"That so?" Barret said.

"We're not going to go there." I said laughing a little. Everyone else laughed too. Cloud remained silent. I left after that as they went on with their business. _Well…now to see her._ I knew that she would probably tell me whatever I wanted to know. I made my may to Aeris' house. It was still a little surprising to go from the dank, desolate, and ugly slums to her home. It was the only green and it had not changed one bit.

I went to the door and knocked. I actually felt kind of nervous. I had no idea what kind of reaction I would get. Her mom answered and she just stood there for a moment stunned. "Mom? Who is it?" I heard behind her.

"Y-y-y-you! You're alive!" She said. I heard footsteps behind her. Aeris had come running. She looked at me and froze for a moment. At first she seemed to think that I was a ghost, but then she remembered that her mom could see me too. She smiled widely and jumped at me.

"It's so good to see you." "What happened to you?"

"We thought you were dead."

"We all missed you."

"That's right we did!"

They were both saying together as they hugged me. I gasped a little trying to get some air. They finally stopped and I breathed a sigh of relief. "I don't know if I can explain, but I'll try. I would like to know what happened while I was gone too…if you don't mind."

"Oh, you poor dear. You haven't heard yet then?" Her mother said. I shook my head. Part of me knew and the rest did not want to listen. "Sephiroth. He died a few years back."

"Five years ago. No one really knows what happened." Aeris said solemnly. "Some hate him though for what happened. It happened in Nibelheim." She told me. I let them tell me whatever they had to say and then they started asking me what happened. I was not one hundred percent sure I knew myself. Aeris did ask her mom to let us talk alone. She somehow knew that it was something her mother might not want to hear. "I know that you went into death. Sephiroth told me there was a tape. They got to see who took you, but there was nothing anyone could do."

"I see. So he saw…that means…." I paused.

"He knew what happened, but…it changed him." Aeris said. "What happened when she took you?"

"She took me to The Abyss. I saw my mother…my family…and Angeal." I said almost whispering his name. _My father._ "It was painful…whatever he was doing to me. It felt like something was being ripped out of me. He made sure that I understood that everyone would die." Mainly I was thinking out loud, but I was ok with her hearing all of this.

"Everyone would die? What does that mean?" She said looking confused. I felt much the same. I really did not understand how I could do something like that. I shook my head unable to answer.

"Angeal and the others helped me get back here. They're still after me though. Whatever they want…can still happen." I said.

"Don't worry. I'm here for you." Aeris said trying to console me. "Do you want to hear what happened?" She asked me.

"Yes…please. I need to know." I said. Part of me knew it would not be a happy story to hear. _I can't let things go like that. I can't let him die. Jenova cannot win!_

**Author:** Well she's back with Aeris and the game has begun, but will things really go the same now that she has been involved. The tiniest thing can change the future, but we'll see how things go. Don't forget the baddies are out there and now almost anything goes.


	67. Past

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 67 Past

_So where do I sail?_

_A ship losing control._

_My cries swallowed up_

_lost in the raging sea._

Sephiroth spent hours combing over the tape looking for a way. There had to be a way to reach that place. The only thing that he could see is that he would have to die. _Is there really no other way? Will I have to die to go after her, but would I honestly be able to do anything then? _The uncertainty of the situation weighed heavily on him. He was ignoring work and everything else. She was gone. His love was gone.

All of his friends began to worry deeply about him. He was now obsessed with death using shady means of understanding the concept. He never told them of that, but they felt that there was something wrong. Sephiroth was changing and not for the better. That nagging came back to him at first small and soothing, then sickly sweet telling him to let go.

A year passed and he still looked refusing to give in. Outside of Midgar he dragged a man along the ground ignoring his pain. What he felt was so much worse than the pain this man felt now. "Quiet!" He said finally annoyed by his cries. He threw him forward and watched him moan in pain. The man on the ground had no idea who was standing over him now. Sephiroth had found him injured and trying to make his way home. He attacked him and decided that maybe this time he would find what he was looking for.

"Why are you doing this? I never did anything to you!" He said crying.

"What does it matter if you die now. You're injuries would have killed you. What I'm doing now is nothing more than mercy." He said stabbing him in the arm.

"Aaah! Please, stop! Please!" He said in pain. Sephiroth stabbed him more and more in non vital areas meaning to only cause pain and release some of his own frustrations. He looked at him and could tell that he was getting close. He no longer screamed in pain, but whimpered at it. His body was going numb to protect him, but he was still going to die. Then he would tell him…what he could see.

"You'll die soon. Can you see?"

"It's dark. Pitch black. You're going to kill me…right?"

"I want to know…what it looks like. Death. What do you see?" He asked fervently. The man was confused he had no idea what to say nor why he would want to know. He had no idea what was going on. He was simply minding his own business and he gets attacked by someone. Whoever this person was he hated them. Whatever they wanted he could care less.

"Why should I tell you…you're the one killing me?"

"I don't know." Sephiroth answered covering his face as he sighed. "I don't know what I'm doing anymore. She would hate this. Hate me…." Sephiroth said quietly.

"She?" He said more confused.

"No one. She's gone anyway." The man jerked his head looking away all of the sudden.

"Voices? Where are they...?"

"What? What do you see now?"

"It's bright! Cold." He said raising his arm. "Sister?" Sephiroth watched him reach up and for a moment he thought he saw someone touch his hand, but he was not sure. The man squeezed the air and then he was gone. Sephiroth cursed and hit the ground leaving a small creature under his hand.

"Damn! That wasn't enough."

_You enjoyed that didn't you my son? There is an easier way to do this. You could just forget her. Why do you try so hard for her? By now…she would be long gone. The dead would have to take her life._

_No! She would have come to me. She would have said goodbye. _Sephiroth told her. _She's still alive. I just have to find her._ He said. Jenova tried to think of something else. He was not ready to let go of her just yet. They had been very close afterall. Suddenly she got an idea.

_Perhaps I can help then. I'm a part of her as well as you. Perhaps that could be useful?_ Jenova told him. It made him wonder. She was right. Jenova was a part of Lilia too. Maybe that connection could help them find her. He needed to try at the very least. Of course, Jenova never intended to look for her. She had tried just to make sure that the girl really was gone and was not somewhere in reach. She had not found her. The girl was gone and beyond their reach. The thought made her happy.

_Do it then. Try to find her if you can. She's obviously not on this world. She could be anywhere._

_Were she on another world…it would be difficult to get there._ Jenova said.

_One thing at a time, mother._ He said disposing of the body. He burnt it first and then buried it. He made sure that it would be hard to find.

**One Year Later**

"Have you given up?" Zack asked him. Sephiroth nodded.

"I can't find her from here…and she would disapprove of my dying to find her." He said. "I suppose that it is time to move on. It's been two years." He had tears in his eyes. Part of him just could not let go. He really did not want to. He was still convinced that she was alive, but there really was no evidence either way.

_It's good that you're doing this. Don't you think she would want this?_ Jenova said.

_I know you're right. She would not want me to mourn forever. Nor waste my life on something like this._ He answered. "I'm going home now. It's late." He said to Zack. Zack nodded and sighed.

"See ya." _What to do. He's so depressed. Lilia…I wish you would come back._ Seeing Sephiroth over the years hurt him. They were best friends and he had had something great ripped away from him. He gulped down his beer and left going to see Aeris. He wanted to check with her one more time before going home.

"Sorry. I haven't seen anything. I feel bad. Any news would be better than this. It's tearing him up." She said.

"He's giving up. He's not going to look for her anymore." Zack told her. She gave him a sad look. "I guess he just can't take it anymore. It's been three years after all. It's been hard on all of us." He sighed and then left giving her a brief smile. As much as he loved Aeris this was not the time to show affection. He was too far down for that. She understood completely. They lost a friend and now there was no hope of finding her. They were giving up out of pure exhaustion.

"Lilia. Where are you? Why is this so hard?" Aeris whispered. She decided to pray a little. Somehow it made her feel better to do that. She wanted to see her friend again and she prayed that it would be soon.

* * *

Sephiroth picked up the folder and slowly opened it. Another mission for him and Zack. They would take a few soldiers with them and check out a reactor that was malfunctioning. Nibelheim was having a problem with monsters and they were guessing that the reactor was somehow responsible. "It's been five years...tomorrow will be your birthday." He whispered to himself.

"So we have a mission. You ready? They want us to leave right away." Zack said. "Truck's already loaded and everyone's ready." Sephiroth nodded saying nothing. He had been like that for a while. They spoke a little along the way and some when they reached town. Zack was excited. It was his home. He had missed it a lot. "Can't wait to see everyone."

"Why don't you visit them today. We'll check on the reactor tomorrow." Sephiroth told him. He hardly tried to hide his enthusiasm. He was happy to be home again. Sephiroth nodded and continued to stare out the window. "Twenty-one. That's how old you'll be tomorrow." He whispered after Zack had gone.

_Why don't you come and see me? I am your mother after all. I would like that._ Jenova said sounding innocent and a little hurt.

_Tomorrow maybe. If there's time._ He replied. Even though years had passed he could still not forget her. He thought about her everyday. It bothered Jenova to no end, but she let it continue. It helped her win him over and control him. Now with Lilia out of the picture she could do whatever she wanted. The next morning they went to the reactor. It did not talk long, but there were a few delays. Their guide got them there and back, but what they found was a bit disturbing.

Sephiroth examined one of the pods inside. "Looks like it's just this valve." He said. Zack came over and closed it. Sephiroth was looking through the glass. _There's something in there._

"What is it?" Sephiroth motioned toward the pod. "In there?" He nodded. Something about this bothered him and Sephiroth seemed very perturbed by it. He looked in and almost leaped over the railing. "A monster!?" He shouted. "What the hell is going on?"

"Is this how I was born? Was I…." Sephiroth stared at it until he heard something above them on the other side. One of them was awake and was trying to get out. It was successful. He stared at it for a moment and then pushed past Zack and killed it quickly. "This is where the monsters are coming from. The lab." Sephiroth whispered the last part so Zack would not hear. "I have to know." _Sorry, mother. I have to do this._

_It's fine. Just come see me tomorrow then. I don't mind. You should find out. We can learn together._ She said almost cheerfully. He whirled around and left the reactor angry. He had to calm down. They had to go back with the guide. Since the bridge was out they would have to find another way. They made it back fine and as soon as he saw the mansion he had to go inside.

"Sephiroth?"

"I'll be gone a while. I'll come back later tonight. There's something I want to check on." Sephiroth said partially lying. He was honestly not sure if he would leave the mansion that night. He left them all staring at him. Zack was worried, but he decided to give him some space. He went in and knew exactly where to go. He found his way into the lab and started searching through books. These were old records of what Ghast, Hojo, and other scientists had been doing. He read through them and began to come to a realization.

They thought Jenova was an ancient. There was little evidence in those books to tell him otherwise so he could do no more than believe it. _Mother…you're an ancient?_

_Hm. I see. Yes. They stole from me this world. I was put to sleep and found by those fools. They took things from me._ She said angrily. Partially what she said was true. The ancients put her to sleep because it was all they could do. They had not the power to kill her. She decided that what he knew now about the experiments were leading him to believe that he was also one even before his birth. It was true and she decided to go and tell him. _They experimented on me and others. You among them._

_And Lilia? No she was different. She was only there for one purpose…to make more like me. I was an experiment. They created me. Am I even human?_ His mind raced as he read on and started to think he understood it all. _I am an ancient as well._ He said in conclusion. He heard the door open and saw Zack. Suddenly part of him hated Zack. He was human, part of the race that stripped his mother, himself, no the ancients of everything. He looked at him in anger and Zack looked back with worry.

"Sephiroth, are you alright?"

_Come to me my son. Now that you know the truth you must realize that they are all the same. They destroy everything that they touch. We could teach them a lesson and continue that lesson on other worlds. What do you think?_

While she said that Sephiroth ranted to Zack. He let him know that this new perspective on life that he had was set. It was rather disturbing to Zack. What he said meant that they all deserved to die. Now he was also calling himself an ancient. Something was horribly wrong.

_If we do that…do you think we might find her?_

_There is the possibility. Would you like to go? I think it's time for a change don't you?_

_A new beginning…on a new world._ Sephiroth told her. _I think I am ready for that._ The idea was tantalizing. He felt that this world no longer wanted him. He was an alien on his own world and they had made him. "You humans deserve to die for the suffering you cause. You don't deserve this world." He said with conviction. He stormed out and looked out at the town. "Everything will burn." He whispered. He drew forth a spell and lit all of the houses on fire. People were in them sleeping. Some would get out, only a few, and others would die. Sephiroth then moved on killing whoever got in his way and headed for the reactor. _Mother, I'm coming._

Zack was stunned. He could not believe what was happening. All of the sudden his best friend was crazy. _I didn't think it was this bad. Lilia, we need you. Where are you?!_ He thought running up the stairs. He was lucky to even have found him at all. None of them knew about that place hidden within the mansion. _I have to stop him or he'll kill us all! Forgive me, Lilia, but I have to.

* * *

_

"Did you know that today would be her birthday?" Sephiroth said as he looked at the sword through him.

"What?" Cloud said. He had tears in his eyes. Sephiroth had destroyed the town and killed his friends.

"Lilia. She would've been twenty-one." He said smiling slightly. He grabbed the sword and pulled it out then turned around still holding it. "Mother, what should I do now?" Cloud was completely confused. Sephiroth had definitely gone crazy. He was talking to himself. Lilia was gone. Cloud did not know her that well and could hardly remember what she looked like. They had only met two or three times.

Sephiroth turned around and cut through the glass. He reached in cutting off Jenova's head and held it close to him. _This is all I can do now isn't it?_ He thought. He looked down at the mako below and sighed. _It's for the best now._ He jumped holding tightly onto Jenova. _Happy birthday, Lilia._ He thought tears in his eyes. He would never let go of her.

_So where has love gone?_

_Will I ever reach it?_

_The cape of storms_

_Echoes the pain I feel inside._

**~L'arc en ciel: The Cape Of Storms**

**from Last Quarter**

**Author:** Well. There it is. Kind of followed Last order/Last Quarter there a little bit. It fits. I also felt that the song would fit as well. For those who haven't seen the movie (You should!) Adam (played by Hyde) writes this song for his love and when she dies he decides that he can't live without her. Next chapter will talk more about Lilia and what's going to be happening in the story of the 'game'. Not sure when the baddies will come in, but don't worry they're there. I have submitted a picture that goes with chapter 64 and I have updated the link in my profile.


	68. Flowers

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 68 Flowers

After she told me what happened I cried for a little bit. I knew what it meant, but I also had to wonder if there was still time. It meant things I really did not want to do. I would have to go with them and somehow keep things a secret. She told me that there were a lot of people that hated Sephiroth. Of course, with him gone they have nothing to fear.

"Are you going to be ok?" She asked me. I nodded slightly.

"I wish I could have been there. Then maybe he wouldn't have done it." I said mainly to myself. Aeris put her hand on my shoulder trying to comfort me. "Please, don't tell anyone about this. I don't know how some people would react to the news. It sounds like that wouldn't go very well."

"Ok. If you want." She said giving me a little bit of a strange look. She was a little unsure why I would say that. I was ok with that though. She did not need to understand. "Maybe you should rest for a little bit." Aeris told me. I just nodded and laid down. I did not sleep. How could I?

The whole time I thought about what might happen and what I wanted to do. I had to do something about this. _I have to help him. Seph, I want you to live. Why did you have to listen to her? _I thought thinking that Jenova was the only reason he would do that. _I'll never let you have him._ I thought not knowing if she really heard me. After the Abyss I could no longer feel her presence in me anymore. She seemed to be gone. "Maybe she is gone." I whispered.

"Lilia. I'm going out to sell flowers. Do you want to come? It'll give you something to do." Aeris said peeping in through the door. I sighed and thought about it. _Maybe it will be good for me?_

"Ok. Give me a few minutes."

I followed her to her "spot" as she called it. She went to the same place everyday to sell her flowers. She had a lot this time so she actually needed me to come with her. I helped her set everything up and she stood in front of the flowers and sold them. All I did was handed the ones they wanted over to them and she took their money, not every time though. There were a few people she gave them to for free. Not many though. They seemed to need their spirits lifted a little bit.

The mood in Midgar had definitely deteriorated over the years. The people looked as if they had a dark cloud hanging over them. Of course, the state of the city probably doesn't help. Everyone seems to have either gotten richer or a whole lot poorer. The slums looked danker and dingier and the richer, upper plate seemed to be about as dismal. No one here was actually happy at all. Everyone just wore a smile and pretended.

I noticed people staring at me. It was really annoying. Some stared because to them I was new, others for more perverted reasons. Aeris said nothing, but she did notice. It was actually good for business. More people came than usual and she sold almost everything she had. She had to let me know that too.

"Having you there was good for business. That's more customers than I've ever seen. I only have one left." She said walking off.

We were about to go when we heard an explosion. It was very close by. We waited for a moment hoping that nothing would hit us. Once we thought it was ok we left. Someone was not paying attention to where they were going and bumped into Aeris.

"Sorry." He said keeping his head low.

"That's ok. Want a flower?" She said smiling at him. He briefly looked up at her and then behind him.

"Sure." He said digging in his pockets. "Better be careful." He said after taking it. He paused when he saw me. "You were at the bar the other day." He said. It was Cloud.

"That's right." I said. "Looks like its getting noisy." I said seeing the soldiers coming. I knew that they had followed him. He got very nervous. "You ok?"

"I have to go." He said running away from them.

"Are they...?" Aeris began.

"…after him. Yes." I told her.

"What should we do?"

"He'll be fine." I said leaving.

"But, Lilia!"

"Don't worry. He'll be fine. You'll see." I told her a little more forcefully. "It's not our business anyway. He doesn't want us involved." I said.

Aeris still seemed a little concerned about him. She eventually got over it. We went to the church check on the flowers before going home. I sat down with all of our things. We spent most of the time in silence. I looked around remembering again. After hearing what had happened I had to wonder. What exactly happened to him. I wanted him to tell me, but he was not answering me. _I guess he can't hear me. I'll just have to wait a while._ I thought somberly. Part of me wanted to cry, but the other half knew that there really was not time for that. Things were about to pick up. Seeing Cloud today made me realize that I had to become his friend. _Whatever happens...I have to stick with Aeris. That's my best bet._

"Lets go." She said smiling at me. She started to walk away, but paused. I stood up and turned around to see who it was. Tseng stood there with a small hint of shock on his face. He knew who I was and was very surprised to see me there. "What do you want now?" She said.

"Nothing." He said calmly. "I just came to visit."

"Well, we're leaving. So you'll be here all alone." She said walking briskly past him. I followed close behind. He would not even dare to do something with me there. He was alone and without anyone to help him there was no way he would win the fight.

"Lilia, is it?" He said as I passed. I barely glanced at him. "You can't ignore us. Pity." He said shaking his head slightly.

"I'm not." I said before closing the door. "Wonderful. They'll know I'm here." I whispered to her. She nodded and said she was sorry. "I don't know what they will do." I said after a long silence. We were almost to her house.

"Hopefully not much." She replied.

"It could be dangerous. They won't be nice about capturing me. They can't afford to." I said. She seemed to understand why. I was not going back there without a fight. _I won't hesitate to kill them if I have to._

We went inside and said nothing about the incident to her mother. She worried a lot about Aeris and I did not want to add to her stress. We lied and told her that everything went well. In a way we were only leaving out a few of the details. She sold every flower. We talked quietly in her room about what we might end up doing if it came down to it.

If they were to come there after me with force I was going to lead them away. I did not want her mother to get involved. I would be the main threat to them and they would want to have leverage over me. My shadow would prevent that, but I did not tell her that. She was worried that if I left the house they would come in after her to get to me. I assured her that I would never allow that. I neglected to tell her how. I still had yet to reveal that to her and I wanted to wait until I absolutely had to. It is something that may frighten some and I would like to prevent that.

**Author:** Well, there you have it. Slow goings I know, but I've hardly done anything. I had a three week break; slept through most of it and now I have class again…. We'll see how this goes. I'm really tired….


	69. Friends and Enemies

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 69 Friends and Enemies

I woke up the next morning feeling very uneasy. My dreams left me feeling tired and a little worried. I was always worrying about Sephiroth, but now I felt something else. I had to become friends with Cloud and by doing so I was going to put them in more danger. That man was not going to give up on me. They would be coming and I was going to have to explain it to them.

Aeris asked me to help her pick flowers to sell. She did this during the week, but not on the weekend. She told me that it got too scary for her then. There were more people out because less people were at work. The people around Midgar I would say are generally good, but at a time like this most of them go bad. I can understand why she would not feel safe.

We picked the flowers and just like before we sold them. Then just like before we went to the church. I helped her tend to the flowers a little bit, but that uneasy feeling started to grow. It got stronger and stronger and I had to sit down for a moment. It was bad enough to actually make me feel a little sick. "Are you ok? Ah!"

The roof came down around her and Cloud came with it. He hit the ground hard and laid there still for a while before Aeris even tried to touch him. He had obviously scared her a lot. "You ok?" I asked her.

"Shaken, but I'll live." She said looking him over. She was looking for injuries. He had plenty of those. Neither of us had anything to help him with. I looked around and found what I could to at least give him some help. I found a piece of cloth that looked like it had been there forever. I cleaned it up as best I could and gave it to her. He woke up soon after and Aeris was back to tending to the flowers. It seemed to calm her down a lot.

"Where am I?"

"The slums." She said. "You scared me there." I could tell that this moment brought back memories. She was remembering when she met Zack. She was remembering their time together and how happy they were. I felt sad for her having to remember that he was gone. Of course, she did not know personally that he had died and that Sephiroth had more than likely killed him.

"I remember you from before." He said looking at the both of us. "Guess I should introduce myself. I'm Cloud."

"Aeris, and this is Lilia." She said motioning towards me. I smiled and nodded my head. I was still not feeling very well.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"I'm fine." I said forcing myself to appear ok. I was trying to hide the fact that I felt like passing out and I honestly had no idea why.

"Are you sure?" Aeris said. "You looked kind of sick. Maybe we should take you home." She said glancing at Cloud. She was getting worried about me. He could see that she was just a concerned friend. He nodded that he would help if she wanted him to.

"No I'm fine." I told them. They did not really look convinced, but both of them saw the person at the back. Tseng was back and he brought help with him this time. He intended to bring her in and I suppose that in doing so he would get me as well. "We should go." I whispered to them

Tseng saw Cloud and intended to ignore him. He had no idea who he was yet, but I knew that was going to change very soon. Aeris whispered something to Cloud and he nodded. Both of them came over to me and helped me up. I tried to push them off not wanting Tseng to see me look weak. _I can't let them see me like that._

We went out the back and of course, they followed us. Cloud tried to hold them off for us, but he could not really be everywhere at once so we had to fight on our own a little bit. We eventually made it outside. It was not really very hard. Once they saw how strong I was and how weak they were they stopped fighting and they stopped chasing us. Tseng seemed a little bit disappointed, but he was not surprised. He seemed to be a little surprised that it had taken as long as it did. _Did he noticed something?_

Cloud caught up to us and we slowed down. He seemed to be relieved that it was over and that we were ok. I could already tell that he liked her and that she liked him, however reluctantly. We made it to her house and her mother was glad to see us and the smile faded quickly when she looked at Cloud. I knew that she remembered too.

"Mom, this is Cloud. He was kind enough to escort us home." She said. Cloud nodded, but said nothing. He was nervous standing there under her gaze. Aeris went upstairs after offering to let him stay the night.

"Cloud, I have a favor to ask. One soldier has already broken her heart; please understand when I ask you to leave in the morning." She said. I stood on the stairs watching. I sighed knowing that Aeris would never just let him go. She was indebted to him after all, and so was I. Cloud paused when he saw me standing there.

"You heard." I nodded. "Don't tell her."

"I won't have to." I said shaking my head as I headed up to her room. At the same time I pointed him to the other room where he would sleep. He waited quite a while before he did anything. He wanted to be sure that we were asleep. I know that he slept little too. He had to check on his friends and he wanted to know that they were ok as well.

When he got up and Aeris laid there listening just as I was. "My mother asked him to leave didn't she." She whispered to me.

"Yes." I whispered back. She frowned and when she heard him downstairs she got up and headed over to the window in the hall. She watched him go. He went slow as if he really did not want to leave just yet. "You want to go don't you?" She nodded. "Then lets go. We should be able to get ahead of him." I said. I was not about to let her go alone.

She was so happy when we went outside and I helped her onto a roof so we could get there ahead of him. When we got there I told her that he was just around the corner. He was definitely surprised. "What are you two doing here?"

"We're going with you." Aeris said. I nodded. He looked at us and instantly went into all of the reason he could think of as to why we should not go with him. "We're going with you, Cloud. You can't stop us from coming. We owe you." She told him.

"Lilia?" He looked at me like I was going to help him change her mind.

"We've made up our minds." I said. He sighed and shook his head.

"Just don't get in the way."

* * *

Scythe stood in The Abyss waiting for word. He could no longer speak to the Abyss anymore. It had ceased to talk to him. It had ceased to show him anything. He was glad that she had returned to Gaia. It was a familiar place for them to go. It was easy to get to. He could read the pathways well by now, but still any error meant death for any of them. He was not ready to lose his underlings just yet. He knew that they would die before the end.

Enshii slowly approached him. The only person that had stayed there with Scythe was the scientist Simon. He was not really interested in what they were doing and he had only been allowed to live for a few small reasons. Scythe needed to know about Earth. Simon knew almost all there was. He knew how vulnerable they would be to almost any attack that he or someone like him did against them. It was his trump card. If she could not be taken easily, he would destroy, piece by piece, everything that she cared about. Of course, he had to figure out exactly what was precious to her on that world. Hurting people there meant something, but not enough.

Simon could not go. He was not reliable enough as far as loyalty goes. He decided to send Siren. She looked the part and dealt well with people. It was her job at the moment to figure out where she had lived before and with the kind of information they had on that world it should be simple.

Enshii came to give his report. He had sent his puppets out with Glaed, Link and Siren as well as letting the other ones search out on their own. This way information moved faster and they all felt the urgency. Time was running out.

"Has she been found?" Scythe asked as Enshii came into view.

"Yes. They found her in one of the major cities. Link is assessing the situation right now. I've already called Glaed back here as you asked." Enshii told him.

"Good. If Glaed goes after her she could ruin everything. I don't want to send her unless we must." Scythe said.

"What are your orders?"

"Once Link reports in I'll decide what we should do. Things are still in our favor right now, but that could easily change. Does she already have allies?" Enshii nodded. "That will mean trouble." He said cursing under his breath. Enshii bowed and then left him to himself. Scythe's mood had worsened and he honestly did not want to be around him if he were to feel the need to attack someone.

Enshii left the Abyss and made his way to Gaia. He knew that Scythe would never leave that place if he could help it. He seemed to be afraid to do so. He found it ironic that the sorcerer, who feared nothing, kept himself so locked away as if he were afraid of the sun itself.

**Author: **Yay another chapter and things progress! So have no time for this...or anything. Anyway.... Cloud's in the picture now and the game is progressing. We'll just have to see what happens. I have almost no plan for this part of the story so I'm just making up stuff now. Anyway thanks for the reviews people. They make me feel loved...or just like a good writer.... But then again I don't care what people say about my writing. Not like it would change anything, unless its a typo, which there are.


	70. Sector 7 and Shinra

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 70 Sector 7 and Shinra

We went through a lot after meeting Cloud. I found it all extremely amusing myself. Cloud, of course, did not. We ended up in the Train Graveyard after our little trek through the sewers. That part I could have done without, but it can't be helped. Tifa, Aeris and I all got along pretty well. Tifa went along with our jokes too. Cloud disaproved of this, but he was also the butt of the joke.

"He worked really hard to win so he could get the best underwear from the Gym." I said.

"Is that so? Cloud, I had no idea that you were into that kind of thing." Tifa said to him giggling.

"Yeah. Everyone was fooled, but he does have kind of a feminine look doesn't he?" I replied back. All three of us laughed at that, but Cloud stopped and glared at us.

"Ok, ok. I think that's enough." I said still laughing. "Although I must say that little sachet that you did for Don was pretty good."

"I can't believe that he picked you and that you almost kissed him!" Tifa said with a little disgust in her voice.

"Me neither." Aeris said shaking her head.

"I wasn't going to kiss him. It was the only way to get him to close his eyes. I was getting tired of waiting on you." He said.

"Sure...that's what happened." I said evily. "Ok. We're really done this time." I said looking more serious.

Cloud gave a sigh of relief and turned away only to find our pathway blocked. Everyone stared at this person curiously and they all got a bad feeling from him. A long white lab coat flowed in the wind and goggles covered his eyes. I remembered him. _Simon? _He just stood there smiling at us. Even though I could not tell for sure I knew that he was looking directly at me.

"Well, well. Here we are once again." He said. "I trust that you remember me?" He said to me.

"Yes. Simon." I said. He nodded and smiled obviously pleased that I remembered him. "You don't seem to care about what they're doing, so I have to ask why you're here." I said.

"Yes, yes. I'm here to give a little warning. Anyone else would have killed you all by now I'm sure." He said gauging our reactions. "I don't want to fight, but they won't hesitate to kill if they must. You can make this simple...and come with me willingly. I doubt that you will though. If you don't then one by one they will come until...either they die...or you do." He said taking small steps forward and moving his arms about for emphasis.

"That all?" I said glaring at him.

"Oh no. Not even the half of it. That only applies to these people and this world. However, there are things beyond this world that you care about. Do you understand my meaning?" He said giving me a devious look. I was the only one who really understood what he meant. None of them knew that secret of mine.

"You don't mean?" I knew instantly what that mean. He meant Earth. Not everyone I cared about there had died when I arrived here. Although I don't really want anyone to die.

"Yes I do. You can have some time to think about it. I'll meet you outside of this graveyard. I hope by then you'll have an answer." He said. He then turned around and disappeared into a white mist. We all stood there dumbfounded. I had no idea what to say or even think.

"Lilia?" Aeris said. Everyone was giving me a strange look. "This has to do with what happened to you doesn't it?"

"Yeah. I don't know what to do. I can't go with him. I can't do that!" I told them almost whispering.

"What exactly are they after?" Cloud asked. I was not sure if I should tell them or not. I had hardly really told Aeris the whole story.

"Is it about what that person told you? That everyone would die?" Aeris asked me.

"I think so. I don't want life to end. I don't want to be the one who does that...why does it have to be me." I said getting frustrated. I was clenching my fists as tightly as I could to keep from hurting someone. I was honestly getting very frustrated and angry with the situation. _Why can't I just be normal like them?_ I felt tears in my eyes.

"Don't worry about it. We'll stick by you. You don't have to go with that man." Tifa said feeling sorry for me. I looked over at her and tried to smile and then I looked over at Aeris who nodded as well. I looked at Cloud who gave a small, hesitant nod.

"What exactly would they do to you anyway?" Aeris asked. She seemed almost afraid of the answer that I would give her.

"I'm sure that woman would torture and kill me once _he's_ done with me." I said shivering a little and wiped my eyes.

"Sorry. I shouldn't have asked." She said looking away. It was a mental image they all had and did not really want to think about. At this point they all considered me their friend. They did not want to just hand me over to die.

We moved on and slowly made our way out of the graveyard. We were all thinking along the same lines. What was going to happen once we were out? What kind of response would we saying no to him bring? I knew what he would say. I just was not sure as to how soon someone would show up to fight us. When we reached him we were all in a fairly dark mood. He was standing there looking very serious. I think that he knew what our response would be.

"So tell me. What is your answer?"

"It's no." I said. He was not surprised at all and had expected that reaction.

"I see. I expected as much. You realize that things will only get harder from here." He said it as a mere statement and I nodded. "I see. I suppose that I should wish you luck then. You'll need it." He said waving slightly as he left.

We all decided to just ignore it for now. What was going on around us had to be the most important thing. There was a lot of commotion going on around the pillar and there were people running around in a panic. People were yelling and we could hear fighting high above us. Tifa was getting worried. After talking to a few people we understood what was going on. In our absence Shinra had seen fit to start exterminating us. They were up on the pillar. Barret had headed up on his own wanting to stop them. It would be more like stalling them until he could get some help. They had come in force. I was debating what I was going to do. Should I fight? Or should I go with Aeris? Either way I would end up going into Shinra building.

"Aeris, I have a favor to ask. Can you take Marlene to your house? I don't feel safe having her here." Tifa said. Aeris nodded. I was still not sure what I wanted to do. "Lilia. I also want to ask you for something." I nodded as well a little curious. "I want you to help us fight them. I know you're strong. We need all the help we can get right now. If they succeed then everyone here will die."

"I don't know if we'll be able to stop them. As long as everyone gets out of the sector it should be fine. Of course, everyone on the upper shelf would be helpless." I said.

"You're right. Someone will need to evacuate all of them." Tifa said looking around. She went over to Biggs and Wedge, who were just standing around starring up at the pillar, and asked them to do it. Aeris decided to go so that she and Marlene would not be in our way. After that Cloud, Tifa, and I headed up the stairs towards the top. Along the way we found some soldiers, and friends, all injured. Tifa hung back slightly to make sure they were ok and asked them to head down and away from the area. It was all we could do at this point. We encountered almost no resistance along the way.

"Get the fuck outta the way!" Barret said. He was trying to get all of the soldiers out of the way so he could try and stop the bomb, but it had already been activated. We came up behind him and the soldiers started to lose their confidence. They were now dealing with four instead of one. Barret was glad to see us and happy to have some help. "I was wondering when you would show up." He said mainly to Tifa. He looked at me and gave a little questioning look, but said nothing. It would not have mattered anyway, Reno appeared to fight us. He took one look at me and almost had a heart attack.

"What the hell are you doing here!?" He said surprised.

"You know each other?" Barret, Cloud, and Tifa said in unison. All of them were surprised and curious because none of them really knew about my past.

"That was a long time ago, but as I said before...I can't go easy on you this time. I have to bring you in." He told us.

"I understand. They're watching." I said. "However, I won't go easy on you either. I don't wanna go back there if I can help it." Obviously by now I had weapons. Unfortunately the choices were limited and I could only get swords. Reno had started off confident, but now he was sure he would lose. He had seen me fight and knew how strong I actually was. He was also still wounded from earlier.

_I hope she at least appreciates what I did for her. I didn't tell them about seeing her...well I told Rude, and I almost died. That woman was strong._ He was thinking. I wanted to tell him that I did appreciate what he had done for me and not just the recent stuff. There were things that he did for me back then as well. I appreciate everyone for everything they have done for me.

Reno started out defensive, which was a good idea. Barret attacked all out and so did Cloud. I decided that I should wait. It would be easier to beat him that way. His defense would be lower. Of course, they thought that I was being easy on him, but they changed their tune after I attacked and almost knocked him off of the pillar. Barret was surprised and so was Cloud. All the while Tifa was trying to stop the bomb and finding out that she was not going to be able to do anything. It was already too late and Reno decided he was done.

Rude came in with the helicopter to get Reno and everyone noticed that Aeris was with him and we knew what that meant. Of course, Barret was freaking out. He had no idea what to do and we were going to die if nothing was done. "Hurry up! We have to get out of here before it blows!" I said to them. They nodded and calmed long enough to find a way out and leave. We were barely in time. Just after grabbing the cord and getting on we heard the explosion, but none of us looked back. Once on the ground Barret went into a fit of tears and curses and pounded on the ground, wall, and whatever happened to be in front of him.

"Barret! Barret! Marlene's ok. Aeris took her to her house!" Tifa told him. He instantly got up, no more tears, or blubbering.

"Why didn't you say so? Let's go see her!" He said. Everyone left with Cloud leading the way. Barret was much cheerier and laughed about past events and even congratulated me on how I did. He was surprised that I was so strong, but all of them had a lingering question. What did Shinra want me for?

When we got to Aeris' house Elmyra greeted us and Marlene leaped up into Barrets arms. They were so happy to see each other. Of course after he was done he sent her upstairs and we got to business. The first question was for me. "So, you want to tell us anything?" Barret said to me. In my head the only answer was, no. Of course, I did not want to talk about it, but I needed them to trust me.

"When I was twelve they brought me in from Corel. That was when they had just finished the reactor and were still trying to control the area. The townspeople gave me to them thinking that it would make things better for them. I became an experiment for Hojo, much like Aeris will be. I was there until seven years ago. When I was kidnapped...again." I said the last part a little hesitantly.

"You were only twelve! That's terrible! How could they do that?" Tifa said sounding angry. She though it was terrible that they had done that to a child. An adult would be much more forgivable. Even Barret seemed angered by it. Of course, anything to do with Shirna makes him mad.

"They just wanted Shinra to leave them alone. I understand. There were a few that helped me, but they were killed." I said solemly.

"It's no excuse. I'm sure that it must have been horrible for you. You were there for what...eight years?" I nodded, but I did not want to waste any more time. We had to go and help Aeris as much as I did not want to go into Shinra.

"We shouldn't waste anymore time. We need to hurry and go save Aeris before Hojo can do something to her. Sometimes I hate what I am." I said partially whispering the last sentence. They all nodded and we left heading for wall market hoping to find a way up. I already knew so I led them there. I felt the need to hurry so I decided to just help them get it done.

We climbed our way up doing this and that to get past obstacles and then before we knew it we were standing before the building. It looked so tall from down there and there had been only a few times that I even seen it from there. Everyone stared up at it in awe of how huge it was. Barret, of course, wanted to barge in. Tifa wanted to sneak in. I did not care and it was up to Cloud to decide. In the end we decided that barging in would be better. I knew the building pretty well and informed them that sixty flights of stairs was a long way and the only way to sneak in. They decided that they did not want to do that. We could easily take cards to use for the elevator.

So that is what we did. Barret busted through the doors and started shooting randomly. There were only two guards there so they were taken care of quickly. Everyone else just hid and waited for the shooting to stop. We were gone by the time they decided to peep out from behind their desks. We were already in the elevator and on our way up to sixtieth floor. We were going to have to get cards for the other floors and that was rather tedious. We finally made it to our destination and discovered that we could not really do much but listen and watch. We got to hear their little meeting and of course they were talking about me and about Aeris. Since they had her in their custody they were more concerned with what they were about to do. I was a danger to them since they were well aware of how strong I was. Reno and Rude were going to be scolded for getting beaten by us and for not being able to capture me. _What do they expect?_

We left and ended up following Hojo back down to the lab. I stayed far behind not wanting to be recognized or even seen by him. We made it to the lab and watched as he started the experiment. He brought up Red XIII as part of the test and of course Aeris got scared. I knew that he would never hurt her. He was not that kind of person. Cloud was the first to react. I was hidden behind Barret and did not intend to just let him see me. Cloud went over to the chamber trying to calm Aeris down and Red stood there growling, but made no move to hurt her.

Hojo got worried when Barret started shooting at the chamber and made a rather pathetic attempt to stop him. When it opened Barret moved and Hojo had not so Red did the only logical thing to him and attacked Hojo for hurting him and trying to hurt her. "Now this is a great moment. Now you know how it feels." I said standing over him.

"Y-you!" He said struggling with Red. "Never thought you'd...just...ugh...walk in here?" He said.

"Not if I didn't have to, but maybe I'll come to kill you next time." I said heading over to the elevator. "Let's go out this way." I said motioning towards it. They did not waste time and we went to the floor below before getting introduced to Red.

"My name is Nanaki, but here I am called Red XIII." He told us. We were more than willing to welcome him into the group. He was friendly and non-threatening towards us. Honestly, how could anyone just leave him behind?

**Author:** Alright I actually ended up putting more in here than I had planned. I'm a horrible procrastinator. I should be doing homework, but I need a break so bad. Anyway I'm sure you can guess what will be happening in the next chapter especially those familiar with the game. Meant to post earlier, but got distracted! Got a new movie! Mushi-shi! God I love it!


	71. Resurrection

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 71 Resurrection

Our daring rescue and escape was very short lived. I had expected it, but it was a larger force than I had even expected. Reno and Rude lead them, of course, but they made sure to have a strong enough force to handle me. Knowing what was going to happen made me curious. Sephiroth would be here, sort of. I wanted to know if he would remember me, if he would even speak to me.

Everyone except me was escorted to prisoner cells. I was sedated and taken to the lab. I woke up naked lying on a table with Hojo grinning from ear to ear. It has to be one of the most disgusting things I have ever woken up to. Even Genesis did not creep me out the way he did. "Hello there!" He said sounding very excited. I was not even sure how long I had been out. I hoped that it had not been for too long. He snapped his fingers and two new assistants stepped forward. They were going to escort me down to the chamber. _If I'm put there I'll see it happen._ I thought.

In the chamber I sat there facing the container Jenova was in. Part of me was actually afraid to see it, but I still had to know. What would happen with me here? I waited and for what seemed like forever nothing happened. I was actually starting to feel tired, but I wanted to stay awake. Just as I started to nod off I heard a loud bang. I jerked awake and looked up at the container. It was shaking and the door was getting ready to give. It flew across the room smacking the wall. What stepped out made me cringe and I looked away for a moment.

It was nothing more than flesh, blood, and organs, all rather disgusting looking. There was no head, but one had started to form. It looked taller than it actually should have been, but I knew that is just because of how tall Sephiroth is. It took what I guess you could call a few steps towards the chamber and looked right at me. It did not seem to have a mind that I could find yet, but it was definitely looking very intently at me. _Seph, do you recognize me?_ I said reaching out. I was not sure if he heard me or not, but I chanced it.

The creature stepped closer having formed a little more of the body. A still forming arm rose up and touched the door. Part of me wanted to shrink back from it, but could not. "Sephiroth?" I said aloud wondering if that would make a difference or not. It looked up at me recognizing the name and pressed on the door with its hand. The door cracked at how hard he pressed on it and then broke. He turned away and then left the rest for me to do.

"Did he recognize me or not?" I whispered. He had not really confirmed it and I was left wondering. He was gone and I had to finish breaking the glass before I could leave. I had not been in there for long so I easily found my clothes from before and followed him. In the lab there was nothing but a blood trail left from him. The lab was completely empty. I went on following the blood and found no one. Everyone was either dead or had ran for their lives. The trail led all the way to the president's office and he was there. He had already killed the president and now stood there surveying what he had done. "Sephiroth?"

He looked at me for a moment and there was a strange kind of recognition in his eyes. He then walked right past me almost touching me as he passed. He briefly looked at me as I turned around to follow, but said nothing. We went down to where Cloud and them were being held and the guard never saw it coming. Sephiroth killed him quickly and opened the door to Clouds cell. He stood there for a moment looking at them and I watched from the corner. "Tell me...." He began. "Why are you following me?" He said turning to me.

"You don't remember me?" He shook his head. Part of me understood, but all I wanted to do at that moment was cry. "Y-you forgot me?!" I said looking at the ground. I felt the tears coming. _If only I had something! Something that he would remember._

"Humans are so weak. Does it really sadden you so much? You must not have been much to me...or maybe I would remember." He said touching my face. I briefly looked up at him before the emotions started to overwhelm me. He had looked different for only an instant. Something clicked, but it was not enough. I fell to the ground crying as he walked away almost laughing. I sat there for a few minutes before I forced myself to calm down and recover. _I can't let them see this. I need to find something to show him! Sheila might have something. I wonder if she still works here._ I was not sure, but I had to try. She would have kept everything. She was already holding onto a lot of my things before I left. I ran as fast as I could to her office and frantically searched for something anything. I was startled by her when she came in. I could tell that she was happy to see me, but she looked so much older. Being here had taken a toll on her.

"I had heard you were here. Got out already I see." She said smiling.

"I need to find my ring! And the necklace he gave me." I told her. I suppose how frantic I looked surprised her, but she seemed to think that I wanted them for the memories. She had no idea what was going on at the moment.

"They're right here." She said getting them for me. "I kept them for him, but he never took them. Said he didn't want the memories. They were too painful." She said handing them to me. "You should leave quickly." She said before sitting down. I nodded and then ran back to the cells. I hoped that Cloud and them had not left yet. I made it just in time to see them all gathering in the hallway. All of them seemed glad to see that I was alright.

"Lilia! We thought something bad might have happened to you." Aeris said. "What happened?"

"I managed to escape from the lab and went looking for you." I said indicating them all. "We should get going." They already knew about the dead soldier and intended to find out what had happened.

"We should find out what's going on. Something doesn't feel right." Cloud said.

"It's really quiet all over." I said agreeing with him.

We left and followed the blood. They noticed that the chamber was broken. They guessed that I had done that by myself and I let them think that. It was definitely the wrong time for me to tell them. Once again I found myself on the way up to the president's office. They took a closer look at his body, of course, coming to the conclusion that Sephiroth had done it. Aeris gave me a worried look.

"I thought he died?" Tifa said.

"Apparently not." Cloud said clenching his fists. He was still angry about Nibelheim. He was having a hard time controlling himself. The only thought in his mind that made this a good moment was that he knew he was alive and now he could get revenge. A helicopter got everyone's attention. It was Rufus and we went outside to greet him. He seemed mildly surprised and maybe even a little happy to see me.

"Lilia. It's been a while." He said smirking. Once again everyone gave me a look. "I suppose that there is a lot these people don't know about you. You were always like that though."

"Get on with it Rufus. What do we owe the honor of your presence?" I said mockingly.

"My father is dead and now I must take his place. However, I know what you've been doing," He said looking at Cloud and them. "and I intend to do things differently from my father. I will make people fear me and I'll start by eradicating any resistance!" He said. I gave him a smirk and laughed. "You doubt my ability?"

"Don't underestimate us!" I told him. Everyone got ready for a fight. I stayed out of it. Cloud, Tifa, and Barret were a lot more eager to fight than I was. Of course, he lost and ran away like I knew he would. Barret and them had some harsh looks to give me. Aeris stuck by me and that made me feel a lot better. We left and got the hell away from Midgar. They informed me that we were going to have a nice little talk when we reached Calm. They wanted to hear a little more of my story than I had been able to tell them before. I wondered if they had guessed that Aeris knew something too. I was not looking forward to it at all. Then again I also knew that Cloud would talk as well. I was going to have to figure out a way to omit Sephiroth from the story…at least most of it.

**Author:** Alright. Sephiroth's back and he doesn't remember her at all. We'll see how things go. Not sure exactly how things are going to play out since I have no plan for this whatsoever. I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. I have somewhat a plan for the ending…I just need to get it there.


	72. Calm

Version 2

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 72 Calm

When we reached Calm I decided that I needed some time to myself to think. I had to come up with something to tell them that was believable. Some of it would be the truth, but it was a lie I knew might come back to haunt me. It was starting to freak me out. I only wanted one thing and it was something I knew that they would never understand with the exception of Aeris.

I ended up walking around the town listening to everyone talk about the strange man they saw pass through town. I knew they meant Sephiroth. At the same time I was keeping small tabs on everyone else. Cloud was in the middle of telling his messed up story about Sephiroth to them and they were all eating it up. Although I did notice that Aeris seemed a bit more skeptical about what he was saying. She would never say so though. It was his story, his memory of the events. Questioning it was not going to do anything.

I found myself at the diner in town eating the special. It was a very suspicious soup and I barely noticed it. Everyone seemed to notice that I was in a poor mood. Either they tried to cheer me up or left me alone. The only thing I could think of was just tell them how I arrived in Shinra, how long I was there, and the fact that I disappeared for seven years. How I was going to explain that to them I had no idea.

"Lilia?"

I turned around very surprised. I had been lost in thought and Aeris had scared me. "Aeris! Sorry...you scared me."

"I didn't think that was possible." She said laughing. "Everyone's waiting. Are you ok now?" She said looking worried.

"So how did story time go?"

"I'm a little skeptical that his view of Sephiroth is a clear one. I knew him a little bit. He would have done anything for you. However, he just gave up after a few years. He seemed to resign himself to the fact that you were never coming back. I just couldn't believe he would do that." She said.

"I was listening in. His story is a little flawed, but it's what he remembers. Let him have it." I said not wanting to start an argument.

"Well they want to know more about you. What are you going to say about him?" She asked me sternly.

"Nothing. Until I think they can handle it I won't say anything and neither will you!" I said giving her a look. "I mean it. If anyone tells them it should be me." I told her.

"Fine. I promise I won't say anything." She said before opening the door.

"There you are. You kept us waiting." Tifa said. Cloud and Barret looked the most impatient. Barret somehow had the idea that I was with Shinra. Cloud just kept up his suspicion from before.

"So...want to tell us more about your connection to Shinra." Cloud said. I sat down before starting. I took a few deep breathes to calm myself. _God I hope I don't say anything wrong._

"When I was twelve I was in Corel. A woman and her daughter had taken me in. Rebels lived in the area trying to stop the reactor from being built at the time and I was stuck in the middle of their querrel with Shinra. Scarlet, some Turks, and a small group of soldiers were sent in to take care of the rebels. Some of the people there were desperate and handed me over to them. Later that day they went after the rebels and caught them. I didn't know until much later, but they killed the woman and girl who helped me." I paused remembering it.

"Shinra always was heartless. They've always killed people needlessly." Barret said. The thought make him angry and he was staring out of the window shaking.

"Go on."

"First we went to Costa del Sol. Hojo wanted to see me first and from there we were taken to Shinra building. I was separated from them and put in the lab. I was there until I turned nineteen. That's when...I was...."

"That's when those people took you. The man we saw in the train yard." Cloud said. "I think all of us are a bit curious about that. You need to tell us everything. We need to know what we're getting ourselves into." He told me.

"I don't know how to explain it...or if you'll believe me."

"You sort of told me and I believe you." Aeris said. "You're my friend."

"I know. It's just...."

"That humans are stupid. They only believe in their own conventions, but life is always so much more complicated." Someone said. We all looked towards the door to find someone none of us had ever seen before. He felt familiar to me, but I could not place him. _Is he the one that stayed in the shadows?_

"Who the hell are you?" Barret said aiming his gunarm at him.

"My name is Link." He said bowing. "I am from a world long since dead, but that is not why I'm here." He said stepping into the center so that everyone could have a look at him. He stopped looking right at me. "Don't worry. We're not going to fight here." He said trying to calm me.

"Then why are you here." I asked him.

"Is it not better to have proof for your story? Why don't you tell them everything...or are you afraid?"

_What the hell do you think you're doing?! _I shouted into his mind. He didn't even flinch.

"I'd rather this be over quickly. _ If they don't trust you they won't protect you. Its such a bother having to deal with other people._ Of course, they are human...and they do die much more easily than we." He said in a threatening tone.

_I see. So you think that if we fight you won't have to work as hard to get me?_ He just smiled at the statement. "You're a fool if you think that's going to work."

"It doesn't really have to, but suspicion fills the room and it breeds." He said disappearing into the white mist. They all looked very shocked. I just stared at where he had been for a few minutes thinking. Everyone was looking to me to explain what that was and what he meant.

"Just ignore him. He wants us to fight so they won't have to deal with all of you." I told them.

"I see. So there isn't any truth in what he said? Is there something we should know?" Cloud said.

"Some things are too personal." I said. "We all have secrets we don't tell everyone."

"I want to know how they can appear the way they do." Tifa said. The others nodded and I took a breath trying to find the right words.

"They're dead."

"Dead?" They all said in unison.

"That's the only conclusion I could come to. Simon, the one you met," I said motioning towards Cloud, Tifa, and Aeris. "told me that he was a scientist on another world and died in an accident. Scythe, their master if you will, brought him back to life. I think it's a spell."

"That's what I thought when I heard about your disappearance." Aeris said. Shinra saw them take you and I've seen that mist before. Most people don't notice the dead like I do. If they really were spirits not everyone would see them." She told us.

"Because of this they can go anywhere and appear at any time. They have the element of surprise here so we need to be cautious." I warned them. They all nodded agreement. So far things were going well and that squelched a few of my worries.

"Another question would be...why do they want you?" Cloud asked. "There must be a reason and if they're going through this much trouble it must be big."

"Scythe seems to hate life. He seems to hate the fact that it exists at all. He wants to destroy it. That's what I think." I told them.

"But why?" Aeris asked. "Wouldn't he die as well?"

"Not inside the Abyss, but I'm not sure he would care. Destroying worlds isn't enough for him. I think they've been at this for a long time." I said. "I would be the trigger." I said a bit lower. Saying it was hard for me. It made it real and it was hard to deal with.

"You? How?" A few of them said. Cloud stayed quiet.

"Everything has a soul. People, plants, and worlds. When a world dies it is because someone on the planet died and started the reaction. That person was the trigger." I said.

"I still don't get it. How could someone do that?"

"A soul." Aeris said. "I had noticed that you felt different." She told me.

"That's right. One person on each world carries a part of the planets soul. It's passed on through their family until they die. That tells the planet when it is time to die. It could be for any reason. However, I am different. I have two." I told them.

For some of them it started to make sense. They easily made the connection and could see how bad it could be. I was basically telling them that all life was about to end if something happened to me. But at the same time, we were also going to have to deal with Sephiroth and those people. It was a lot to deal with and many of them were not too sure we could do it. I was just glad that they were all on my side and willing to help me. It was a great relief.

"I think we should rest. We don't know when they'll decide to attack us. We should be prepared." Cloud said. We went to sleep and I was sure that someone had come into the room. I woke up feeling a presence, but they seemed intent on remaining anonymous. It was gone before I could place it. We would leave the next morning and I could not help but wonder if things would play out the same or not.

**Author:** It's been a while. I've barely had time to write there is so much going on. Most of it is me being worried about stuff. I'm moving and I dunno if I can pay for that...second job maybe? I don't know. That might mean this gets put on hold or just takes even longer to shell out a chapter. I'm also graduating in a quarter. Unless I start making enough money for internet at home I won't be able to update anymore. :( Well that's about it.

Next chapter gives a little progression to the game setting. Can't say much more. Not sure what exactly I'm going to do tho, but I never am.


	73. Junon

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 73 Junon

We left Calm and made sure to get chocobos to ride over to the mountain cave. The monster lurking there was something everyone warned us about. It was something that we definitely did not want to deal with. The Midgar Zolem followed us as closely as it could, but the chocobos were too fast for it and it soon gave up. When we reached the entrance everyone was surprised by what we found. The chocobos ran off when they saw it.

"I bet this is his doing." Cloud said.

"Show off." I said quietly. Cloud just glanced over at me. Everyone else was amazed that he could even do something like that. The Zolem was impaled on the marker. Part of me felt bad for it. It was only doing what instinct told it to do. This territory belonged to it and it was only protecting it.

"Lets move on." Cloud said finally. He could no longer bear to stare at it. Everyone had also had enough of it. We went inside and were greeted by the Turks. They talked and we ignored them. They weren't really making much of an effort to stop us.

"The real problem is there just isn't anyone in Shinra who can beat you." Rude said to me. Reno nodded.

"It's not like we won't try though, and we're not weaklings." Reno said.

"Yeah. Well just the two of you won't be enough." I said smirking. I knew that Elena was there just dying to come out and introduce herself. She was waiting for the right moment and I had just given it to her.

"That's why they added me to the team!" Someone else said. We looked up to see a girl standing there smiling from ear to ear. "I'm Elena, the newest member of the Turks." She said proudly.

"She sure is full of herself." I said.

"Elena! Get over here. Stop messing around." Reno said to her. He rolled his eyes at her and then they turned around and were gone.

"That was weird." Tifa said. They all nodded and I just laughed.

"Might take them a while to get serious with her around." I said laughing a little. "Lets move on."

Once outside we made our way to Junon. I was feeling a bit hesitant to go there, but I knew that we had to. Of course, we found our way forward blocked. A soldier guarding the door just was not willing to let us in…and with three girls in the party! Everyone was annoyed by that and the only reason we did not beat him up was because we did not want to endanger the people here. We moved on and went by the water merely exploring the town and found the girl and her dolphin playing. I just stood back and watched as it unfolded. The monster came and she got hurt. Cloud had to give her cpr and he looked really nervous about that. Afterward he stood there frowning as she thanked him.

Afterward we took her home and ended up being thanked by everyone. They were grateful to see her alright. We got to stay the night for free and everything. Things were actually going well for us at the moment. The next day she decided to help up out by showing us a way to get in. Well, only Cloud would be going that way. Her dolphin friend could launch him up and in. He did look a little afraid of doing it. However, he really did not have much of a choice. The rest of us would have to find our own way in. I was not really sure if I liked our way or not.

"Alright so now we need to figure out how to get the rest of you up there." She said to us smiling. It had taken three tries for Cloud to make it up there without freaking out. It gave us a good laugh.

"We might be able to bribe the guy." I said motioning towards him.

"For all of you…that might cost a lot." She said. "There's supposed to be a parade before the new president of Shinra gets on the boat to leave. Maybe if you dressed like the crew you could sneak onto it?" She suggested. Part of me cringed at the thought, but I knew that it was the best way, and the only way.

"The question is how are we going to do that?" Tifa asked.

"The crew will have to come through town first and they haven't arrived just yet. They should be here soon." She replied. Everyone nodded and we had Red watch for them. We did not have to wait very long for them to arrive. They were supposed to be ready before the parade which was going to start soon. It was my job to get their attention and get them into a secluded area. We just tied them up and took their clothes. We were lucky that there were even enough of them for all of us to have clothes. It was rather interesting to see Red walking on his hind legs like a human. It looked hard and we tried to help him out as much as we could. Somehow we got in without being stopped. We made sure that he barely got a look at Red.

Once we were in and found our way to the boat it was just a matter of doing what we were told and waiting for Cloud to arrive. It was not really a very long wait. He was surprised to see us like that. We were technically working for them and everyone got to see him in a soldier's uniform. The trip was mostly uneventful. Until Sephiroth arrived. We all gathered on the deck to talk about what to do. Cloud wanted to find out if it was him and confront him. He decided that Red and I would join him. Part of me cringed at the thought. _Do I want to see him? Will he say anything?_ I was hoping he would not say anything.

We went below deck into a room to find a dying soldier. Sephiroth appeared out of nowhere and started talking. He had his back to us most of the time. I noticed the arm that he was carrying. _Jenova. How am I going to get to him?_ He turned around to have a look at us and gave me a brief smirk. No one noticed that he did that and I was glad for that. I also noticed that there was something else with it. Jenova was trying to send me a message. She was not longer able to talk to me directly.

_So I see that you're still alive. Don't think that I'll give him up so easily._ She said to me. _You'll find that their hatred for him and his hate for the world hard to combat. I think I'll enjoy making your squirm._ She said. It was short and no one even noticed that I had not been paying attention. All of the sudden Sephiroth was gone and the arm he had been holding now lay on the floor moving. Everyone stared at it for a moment wondering what to do. When it suddenly leapt up and took a larger form they jumped back getting ready to fight. Cloud was looking pretty determined so I could only guess that seeing Sephiroth angered him. After the fight, and it was an easy one, we went back to the deck and waited for the ship to dock. We were all a little tired and kind of glad to be on land again.

Costa Del Sol was our stop and I cringed a little knowing that Hojo was probably there already. We were going to stay at the inn and then explore town before leaving. Getting information is always important and then again there is the beach. Even heros need some down time. I avoided the beach for a while until Aeris, Tifa, and a very moody Cloud came and forced me into it.

"C'mon guys! I don't want to!"

"Sorry, Lilia, but you don't have a choice." Tifa said.

"We're worried about you!" Aeris said. "You've been in here since we arrived. We just want to help. Right, Cloud?" She said nudging him a little bit. He just nodded. He was still thinking about what happened on the boat. Tifa and Aeris grabbed my arms and started dragging me outside. Cloud followed close behind almost looking amused by my struggling.

"I can walk ya know!" I said tired of being dragged. We were finally at the beach and I dug my heals in the ground when I saw Hojo. "Hojo." I said bringing it to their attention.

"Hojo?!" Aeris said looking over at him. "Why is he here?"

"Doesn't matter." I said wanting to ignore him, but Tifa marched right up to him and started yelling at him. She was definitely giving him a piece of her mind. However, all of it fell on deaf ears. He did not care what other people thought of him or what he did.

"I'm on vacation right now." He said. "I'm here to relax and nothing more."

"Yeah and while you do that...you're scarring everyone else." I said looking around. A lot of the people were staring at him and most of them found him a bit creepy.

"Ah. So you're here as well. I suppose it makes sense." He said briefly looking at me. "After being there it only makes sense that you would rebel as well."

"So. It's not like you care. You only care about yourself."

"Well you are right." He said laughing slightly. "Oh by the way, I know that you two married shortly before you disappeared." He said eyeing me. He seemed pleased by my reaction. What he said shocked me. We made sure that only certain people knew about that.

"Y-you...."

"As much as you tried to hide it people talk. Sheila has a big mouth. You of all people should know that." He said laughing. "So tell me." He said giving me a more serious look. "What do you intend to do?"

"What's it to you?"

"Curiosity." He stated.

"It's none of your business." I said briskly turning around and leaving as fast as I could without running away. I was so angry I could hardly see straight. _How could Sheila tell him? She knew how much that meant to us!_

"Lilia!! Wait for us!" They were all confused now and I felt them grab me. "Lilia." Aeris said looking concerned. "Need to talk don't you?" She said. I nodded and I knew that she meant just us two. I was glad. She was the only one who knew the truth. The only one who understood.

"I can't believe that he found out!" I said frustrated.

"Well, he seems like the nosey type. Maybe he overheard it. I don't think she would tell him directly." Aeris said. I knew that she was probably right and I would not be able to ask her anytime soon.

"You may be right, but still...that is not something I wanted to hear!" I told her. She put her hand on my shoulder trying to calm me. We heard a knock on the door and she gave me a look. I just nodded. Cloud came in wondering why I was so upset.

"So what is it? What he said really got to you. Are you ok?" He said pausing a few steps away.

"Sorry, I just can't believe that he found out about that. I never wanted him to know anything personal and somehow he knew everything!" I said. Cloud remained silent. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised though."

"So you were married?" He asked. I just nodded. "To who?" He said curious. I decided not to answer. "You don't have to tell me. You can talk to us. We're your friends...so don't shut us out." He said leaving.

**Author:** So she isn't going to tell them yet. I'm not quite ready for it to come out in the story yet. Haven't really had much time for this or anything else lately. I'm graduating again! Also my birthday is this sunday and I was going to see Avatar, but someone else is having a birthday and we're going to celebrate together. Yeah I still haven't seen it. I know I'm not alone tho. I'm just the only one out of all of my friends who hasn't seen it. I don't really go to the movies tho.


	74. Bonus! Siren

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 74 Bonus! Siren

Siren had a rather simple life. She was always a follower. She did as her parents told her up to a certain point, but ended up going into the military. Still she was stuck following orders. This did not really bother her all that much. She was not a born leader and others could see this. She was very loyal to them or anyone she saw fit.

All of that changed when she met him. Scythe.

Siren easily fell for men, but this was a little different. This man was nothing but a mystery to everyone that saw him. People feared him warning others to stay away, but she could not help herself. For an entire day she followed him watching his every move. _Who is this man? I just have to know._ She thought to herself. Her friends were not surprised by what she was doing. It was not the first time. However, they told her to be cautious. He felt dangerous to them.

Scythe did notice her. At first he did not care, but when she did not stop it became annoying. This was something he did not want. He was posing as one of them for the time being. Only one person actually spoke to him and that was the woman who hired him. They were waging war and in desperate need of help. The Summoners they were fighting had suddenly grown in numbers and gotten help from people living nearby. They were becoming dangerous. Scythe did not care about them, but knew that it was in his best interest to cooperate.

He stopped and waited letting her get closer. They were pretty much alone since many people stayed within ten feet of him at all times. She came very close thinking that he still had not noticed her. "Why do you follow me, girl?" He said She was so surprised that when he turned around and spoke to her she jumped back.

"I-I..." She said not knowing what to say. "I'm sorry, I was curious." She said after gaining some composer. _He is such a beautiful man._ She couldn't help thinking.

"Curious?" He laughed. It was an icy laugh. His gaze was very piercing. "Curiosity can kill." He stated.

"I know, but everyone is so afraid of you. No one even knows your name." She said.

"Scythe." He said. "Stop following me or I'll kill you." He said frankly as he turned away.

"Wait. I'm Siren! Wait for me!" She said going after him. This was something she just had to do. It was the strongest feeling she had ever had. _I have to know him._

"Siren!" A woman shouted.

"Y-yes ma'am!" She said saluting her.

"Stop bothering him. I'm sure he could do without your chatter!" She said walking away. It was their commander. She had no fear of Scythe and Siren could tell. Scythe merely ignored them both and kept going to his tent. Siren ignored her though and continued to follow him.

"If you need anything...let me know." She said outside his tent. "Anything." She left with that said.

Scythe was a little surprised by her. She was giving herself to him. He knew that if he asked anything she would do it without question. He had seen her before now and like many others there she simply did as she was told. People like that could be useful. Unfortunately he was not sure he could handle having her around. She was in love with him.

Siren went to her tent humming to herself. She was happy. Her friends gave her questioning looks. "So what happened?" They asked. The way she looked at them made them think something good had happened to her, but she had been following him all day. Nothing good could possibly come of that.

"Well, it's nothing really. I got his name." She told them. "It's Scythe."

"He talked to you? That's a surprise. He only talks to Misa." They were all surprised that he would waste his time with anyone else.

"Well I guess I got to him." She said smiling. "Although Misa did yell at me." She said frowning.

"You should be careful around him. He's bad news I know it. I just have a terrible feeling about him."

"Lets go to sleep. We have a big day tomorrow." Someone else said just wanting them to shut up. They all laid down and Siren had a hard time sleeping. She was just so excited about what was happening. _I want to be by his side...forever._ She thought before closing her eyes.

The next morning everyone got up early and formed ranks. Misa was going to talk to them before battle. Scythe was nowhere to be seen. Siren was very disappointed. She wanted to see him again so badly. "Stop fidgeting, Siren." Her friend said beside her. She just gave her an annoyed look. Misa was talking and had also noted Scythes absence. There was little she could do about it. He was only there to help and she had very little authority over him.

Scythe was there watching from out of sight. He had found his target and knew that Siren was very close to this person. He had noticed the man was in love with her and very jealous of her infatuation with him. This could prove useful to him. He could use her, but he would have to wait until Misa had shut up. He disliked her, but tolerated her for the time being. She was a long winded woman and he was starting to think that she liked the sound of her own voice. She rolled his eyes in annoyance. _On the eve of battle and all she can do is prattle on while their enemy is watching and ready._ He thought almost laughing at their ignorance.

Finally she was done and everyone dispersed to their posts. He decided that now would be a good time to strike. Battle would begin and his disappearance would go unnoticed. He went to find Siren and the looks everyone around her gave him did not surprise him. She smiled at him obviously happy to see him. "Scythe, what can I do for you?"

"Follow me." He said knowing that she would. When they were alone he began to explain. "I'm not here to help them fight. I have another purpose." She did not understand, but listened intently. "I'm looking for someone who is different though not many would notice this."

"Who?" She said hoping to God that it was her. She was having so much trouble hiding her excitement.

"He is a friend of yours and I would like your help. I will be honest. In the end he will be dead." He stated. He wanted to make sure that she understood what he was telling her. He knew that even if she did not help she would never get in his way.

"A friend of mine?" He nodded. "Who?"

"Zander is his name."

"Oh. What do you want me to do?" She asked. He smiled glad that her blind love for him would allow her to betray a friend or comrade. He explained what he wanted her to do and for a moment or two he was unsure if she were honestly going to do it. She was disgusted by the fact that he loved her, but she was willing to help him no matter what. She thought about it for a while. Zander was a friend, but she had not really known him for that long. He was already frustrating her. He was nice, but he had flaws that she could not ignore. Now she knew why he clung to her so.

"Fine. I think I can do that." She said happily.

"Good. You must wait til the fighting begins. That will be the best time. No one would notice us missing." He told her again to make sure. She nodded and then skipped back to her post not saying a word. He shook his head unsure of whether he made the right decision. _I suppose it won't matter either way. I can always kill them both._

Zander gave her a strange look. He could not believe that she was still infatuated with that man. How happy she was made him want to puke. As much as he liked her he could not be on her side this time. For some reason she did seem a little uncomfortable around him. She kept glancing over at him. She was wondering if she really wanted to go through with it, but she wanted to impress Scythe.

"Hey, Zander, can we talk for a minute?" She asked quietly. He gave her a questioning look. "Privately." She said a little louder. They were surrounded by their regiment at the moment and being alone was not really an option here.

"Is it really that important?" She nodded looking very serious. He looked around and then motioned for her to follow. He was wondering what she wanted. This had never happened to him before. They were almost never alone.

"Sorry. I know that this is a bad time, but it just can't wait." She said.

"It's Bahamut! He's coming in for an aerial attack. Leviathan has already taken out one of the ships!" Someone started shouting. Zander glanced back at the others then at her.

"Can this wait?" He asked her. Now was just a bad time. She violently shook her head. "Can you make it quick?"

"Yes we can." Someone said behind him. Zander turned on his heel to see Scythe standing there smiling strangely. "The battle has begun and no one will miss us. As if it would matter." There was a strange look in his eyes.

"What is this?" Zander said looking at them both.

"Sorry, but he asked me too. I couldn't pass it up." Siren said.

"What do you want?" He asked Scythe. Scythe remained silent for a moment.

"You wouldn't understand." He said. He whispered a spell that put him to sleep. Zander fell to the ground and Siren stood there silently watching. "If you want to come then stay close." He told her as he picked him up. He would have asked her to do more, but she was weak. She would have other purposes.

"Really!!!" She said jumping up and down. He looked at her raising an eyebrow. _I wonder if this really is a good idea or not. Hopefully she will become more serious. She is a bit young still._ He thought frowning at her. They made their way to The Abyss and for once she was silent watching everything he did. The whole time she was wondering what he was going to do.

Zander was just starting to wake up. The spell did not last long. As soon as he saw Siren he started shouting. "Why are you just standing there?! Help me. I'm your friend, your comrade! What's wrong with you?!" He shouted at her.

"Soon you will be silent. If she tried to help you then I would kill her as well." Scythe said. Zander looked at her and then him again.

"Is how you feel about him really so strong. You don't even know him! I never thought you would do this, Siren."

"What can I do? What are you going to do with him?" She asked Scythe.

"The process won't kill him, but it will be painful." Scythe said before starting the spell. A second later Zander felt the pain. He tried to fight back, but he knew that it was futile. This man was strong. His grip on his neck was like a vice. Siren watched now unsure of what to do. He was her friend and he was in pain. She could tell that he wanted to scream, but refused to let them hear.

"Sorry, Zander. I can't help you right now, but you'll go home. Won't he?" She said. Scythe said nothing, but she knew he heard. She could see him chanting. When he was done he dropped Zander.

"If he wants to he can try. Unless you know where to go it's very hard to go anywhere here. Besides, soon that world will perish." He stated.

"You mean that Gaia is going to die?!" Siren exclaimed. She was honestly surprised. She had no idea that this is what he had been trying to do. "I didn't know that's what you were doing." She said softly.

"Does that change you're view of me? If you want to leave then go. You'll be dead before you get anywhere." He replied.

"Siren." Zander stood up looking at her. Blood covered his face and neck. "You can't be on his side. This man is evil!"

"I can do what I want, Zander. I'm not ready to die just yet. There is no going back." She said looking very serious. Scythe was glad for the seriousness. It showed that she was capable of being more than an annoyance. He was surprised how willing she was to help him after learning the truth.

"Then what are you going to do?" Zander asked.

"I guess that...I'll have to kill you." She said almost unsure. Zander was shocked that she would even consider it. They were friends and she had only known this man for a few days.

"You're joking. You've never killed anyone." He said to her. Scythe just stood there watching and waiting for her to make her decision. She stood there almost shaking for a moment. Then she became very calm and finally looked at Zander with determination in her eyes.

"If you're going to get in his...no our way, then you have to die." She pulled out her whip and a knife. Zander was stronger than her and she knew it, but she knew they weren't getting out of this and she would rather be on the winning side. Zander pulled out his sword and got ready to fight. He still could not believe that she was doing this. He just could not understand it.

"That's enough." Scythe said. "You are not going to win this fight. Everyone knows it, Siren. I can deal with him." He said just resting his hand on her shoulder. She lowered her weapons thankful that she would not have to do it. Part of her felt a sort of shame for being so weak. Scythe uttered a spell and Zander did his best to prepare, but there was no defense against it. He was dead before he even felt it. "The Abyss will take his soul. You can dispose of his body." Scythe said.

"Where?" She said looking around.

"Before coming here we were in death. Put him there. They will do as they like with him...unless you want to return him to Gaia. There is still time." He said.

"Can we? After what I did it's the least I can do." She said looking at his body. Scythe nodded. She needed to do it and he understood to a point. She had betrayed him and everyone on her world by doing this.

When they returned they found the battle over and abandoned. Scythe could see what happened. Leviathan had gotten out of control and flooded the battlefield killing anyone on the ground. Those in the upper tree roots were fine. Also those that had stayed closer to the mountains managed to get away. Siren sat Zander down and stepped back. "Looks like both sides lost." She said.

"Come. We should leave." Scythe said hurrying her.

**Author:** There's another baddie's past revealed. If she's annoying well she is really young and pretty naive here. I had to make her that way. There's always one and Scythe gets to deal with that for a while. Obviously she gets better as time goes by. Of course, you can decide whether it's maturity or just a new way to get closer to him.


	75. Corel

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 75 Corel

Barret seemed to be hesitant to go to Corel. He stayed a little bit behind, but that didn't stop anyone from recognizing him. A man came over to greet us looking happy to see visitors. "Welcome to..." He paused mid-sentence when he saw Barret. Barret noticed and looked down in shame. "You! You've got some nerve showing your face around here!" He said.

Everyone looked over at him questioning, but he never looked up. I knew he felt everyone's eyes. The man's outburst had alerted everyone. Anyone who knew him was glaring in his direction. The man left in a huff and we moved on.

Everyone was curious about why he reacted that way and of course we asked him. "They blame me for what happened to this town. Shinra burned the entire town down." He said. We pressed further, but he refused to say anything so we moved on.

Before getting to the transport to Gold Saucer we heard shouting behind us. "It's you!" This woman said running up to me. "I remember you!" I could see that she did, but I could not seem to remember her. "You don't remember me do you?" She said. I shook my head. "You stayed with my neighbor. We were all a lot younger then though there aren't many of us left."

"I'm sorry. It's just been a long time." I told her.

"Don't worry about it. After they took you..."

"I heard." I said looking away. "I'm sorry about that."

"Oh that wasn't your fault! Don't blame yourself." She said shaking her head. "That was Shinra's doing. They killed a lot of people here because of their opposition."

"Still."

"That's right. They ruined this place." The man with her said angrily. Everyone here hates Shinra. It was very visible on their faces. "The only reason this town is still here is because of Gold Saucer."

"That's actually where we were going." Cloud said.

"Hope you have a fat wallet." The man replied. Going to Gold Saucer was going to be interesting. I knew who was waiting for us there. I could also tell that everyone was looking forward to going there. It was a place to relax and let out some stress. It was also a place to spend all your money. But there would be lots of people and some important people there as well.

We got there and instantly their faces lit up a little bit. Cloud was the most serious of everyone. The first dilemma was buying a ticket. Since I had lost everything the ticket that I bought is now lost. As well as all the money. Everyone forked over as much money as they had so we could get in. Once inside everyone decided where they were going to go. I was going to the Chocobo races. I had missed out the first time, but not this time. Cloud had picked Aeris to walk around with. As if it weren't obvious enough.

At the races I spent a little money betting and somehow managed to win a few. I spent a lot of time watching. I didn't mind tho. Sports are not really my thing, but I love Chocobos. It was pretty busy there. I was also trying to keep an eye on everyone else too. Cloud and Aeris had picked up Cait Sith. I frowned at that knowing who it really was. Eventually I was done with the Chocobo races and headed over to Battle Square. I knew what was going to happen.

I had gotten there just after Dyne. I looked around and found the devastation. Cloud came in behind me. I could tell that they had been looking for me. "What happened here?" Cloud asked me.

"Don't know. I just got here." I replied. The owner came running up to us. He took one look at Barret and frowned.

"Arrest these people!"

"What?" Everyone said.

"The report is that a man with a gun grafted to his arm is the one responsible." He said looking at Barret. "You are all together I assume, therefore you are all guilty." He said.

"That's a joke." Tifa said in disbelief.

"I don't think he's joking." I told her. Soldiers surrounded us guns raised. "Don't fight back. There's no point." I told them. I could see that they were ready to fight. They gave me a questioning glance, but did not struggle.

Once we were taken down to the prison we discussed what we were going to do. No one had ever escaped before so we had to become the first. Barret left us though. Everyone decided to give him some space. "This desert is a natural prison. It will be impossible for us to just walk out of here. That's why it's in the center." I told them.

"We should talk to the other people here. One of them might know a way out." Cloud said. "Tifa, why don't you go check on Barret." She nodded and left. The rest of us went our own way. Aeris stayed close to me. I already knew what to do and had no intention of talking to anyone for that. There was something that was bothering me. I kept feeling a presence. I felt someone watching me, but I just could not figure out who or what.

I went in search of it and I suppose that is why Aeris chose to follow me. She had a small hint of concern on her face. "What is it, Lilia?" She asked finally.

"Something is here. I feel it." I said quietly. Whatever it was was somewhere out in the desert. I followed it feeling it getting stronger. "Feels angry." I said. It did. For some reason it was angry. I got the feeling that somehow it was my fault even though I have no idea why. We left the small prison town and entered the desert. Aeris was starting to get worried.

"I don't think we should go too far." She said. "What if they can't find us?"

"Don't worry. I can get us back." I said confidently. After walking for a while I saw something. A girl standing there with her head down. As we got closer she looked up at us and we were both taken aback. "Who are you?"

"Not you. You killed me." She said.

"I don't understand." I said trying to wrap my mind around what was happening. She looked exactly like me. She said nothing, but pointed down to the ground.

"Here. That's where you died." She said. "If you don't believe then look for yourself." She said. Then she disappeared.

"Lilia?" I just shook my head and then knelt on the ground and started moving the sand. _I have to see for myself if what she said is true. Did I die? Is that how I got this body?_ My thoughts were racing and Aeris just stood there watching. Both of us were afraid that she was right. I stopped when I found a bone. I pulled it out and realized is was part of a leg. I tried to uncover most of the bones. They looked about right. The girl reappeared kneeling across from me.

"See. That is you." She said.

"I still don't understand. How is this even possible?"

"You don't know?" She said. I shook my head. "That man killed you. I saw it." She told me.

"I had no idea that someone else was there." I whispered. She just nodded.

"He saw me and I was already in bad shape, but something stopped him for a moment. I heard voices. They said they needed my help. That you couldn't die yet."

"Voices?" She nodded.

"Tell me. Will I regret doing it? I agreed to die because I never imagined making it out of here alive. There was no point."

"I'm still alive. I don't plan on dying soon. Why are you so angry?" I asked her. I could still feel her anger.

"They didn't tell you!" She shouted. "Why keep it a secret? Besides they promised me something. How long must I wait?"

"What did they promise you?" Aeris asked. I could see that she was having trouble understanding all of this.

"They promised to make it up to me. Reward me for doing this. It's been a long time. Feels like forever. Time moves strangely here." She said.

"I'm sorry. I had no idea." I told her.

"Nothing you can do. Better go back. Someone's coming." She said looking out at the desert. "Go!" She snapped at us. We both nodded and turned away.

We left her in a hurry. She was insistent that we hurry back to everyone. They had started looking for us. Cloud was standing at the edge of the town waiting. "What's the matter? Why did you go off by yourselves like that?"

"Sorry." We said catching our breath.

_Behind you!_ A voice shouted at me. I turned on my heel making sure to draw my blades at the same time. A huge spiked ball was flying at me. I dodged as well as everyone else. Link stood there smiling.

"Not bad. I was hoping to surprise you." He said. "You know why I'm here."

I nodded getting ready. Cloud and Aeris stood by me ready to fight as well. Everyone else was standing behind us. They wanted to make sure no one else would get hurt.

"I won't give up. I'm not going back!" I said firing at him. He just smiled and whipped the ball in front of him to block them.

"The desert is my element. I've lived in it my entire life. I won't be easy to beat." He told us as he attacked. It came flying at us very fast, but I was fast too. I was a little surprised that he could fling it around with so little effort. It made getting close to him very difficult. I was almost thinking of asking one of them to get Barret. Another long range fighter would be very helpful.

"We really need Barret right now." I told them. They both nodded. I was hoping that it would make things harder for him. Aeris went and got him. She did stay close though. If we got hurt she wanted to be ready to help us. Link was definitely in his element. He was using the sand against us. With that in our faces it was hard to see him and he was not staying put. "I'm gonna try to get around him. It should be hard for him to see as well. We need to keep moving just like he is. We're sitting ducks here."

They agreed and we each moved in a different direction. I spotted him for a second, but he was gone just like that. I fired and then moved as fast as I could. I just missed getting hit. I could hear Barret doing the same thing. He was cursing so loud anyone could find him. Cloud was nowhere to be seen, but I could see that he was trying to get close to Link. It was hard with him moving around so much. Finally the sand began to settle and I could see him.

_Gotcha!_ I thought. He was getting ready to stir up the sand again. Having us almost blind was making it easy for him and he liked that. I fired and got him in the arm making him drop his weapon. He turned to me and picked it back up at the same time. He was angry now and determined. _Guess that made him angry._

He started focusing on me and I could see that before he had not been very serious. Barret and Cloud were finally able to get to him now. I tried to keep him distracted. He was now injured, but I did notice that the wounds were starting to heal. Suddenly he stopped everything. He looked at us sternly. I could see that he was getting ready to finish us off.

"Playtime is over now. Time to end this." He said. He spun the ball and chain over his head faster and faster. We braced ourselves for whatever he was about to do. As he did it we noticed that the sand was starting to move as well. It was flowing towards him faster and faster swirling around until we could no longer see him.

"Get ready." I told them. None of us could see what he was doing, but we imagined it might hurt a lot. All of the sudden the ball came flying through the wall of sand right at us and with it the sand followed. It swirled around it expanding itself so that it hit all of us. I crossed my swords in front of me to block it and dug my feet into the ground bracing for the impact.

It hit me hard. There was so much sand I had to close my eyes, but I managed to block it. I felt it being drawn back shortly after impact. I opened my eyes and saw that I was covered in sand and Barret lay on the ground covered as well. Visibility was low, but I knew where they were. "Cloud?"

"I'm ok. Still standing." He said spitting sand out. "Gonna need a bath after we beat him." I smiled at him glad that he was ok. Barret got up cursing once again. He only took the time to check his gun before getting ready.

"We're still standing. What now?" I shouted to him. He did not respond, but I realized that he was sneaking up on us. "I know you're there." I said turning around.

"Well since you asked, I suppose I'll answer." He said. The sand settled and we stood there staring at each other. "Someone has to die." He stated. "Or, this can end now. You can give up. I imagine you'd like to keep up this farce though." I felt Cloud glance at me when he said that. He still felt that I was hiding something from them.

"Just shut up and fight." I said attacking. I decided to get closer to him this time. He did not make it easy, but I did manage. In a way, I almost think he let me in the end, but was surprised when I got him. I knocked his weapon away and gave him a nice slice across the chest. He tried to reach for his weapon, but I refused to let him. This fight had gone on long enough. We were all getting tired.

Barret was giving me some help while Cloud moved in to help me. He came in with his limit ready. I just moved out of the way so as not to get hit. Link laid there for a moment before sitting back up cautiously. He was strong. I could see that all his wounds, though healing, slowed him down. "It's over." I told him.

Barret stood by his weapon ready to fire if he even tried to reach for it. Link just started laughing. "Fool. You can't kill me. Hurt me all you want I won't die." He said still laughing.

"You've failed. Do you really think your master will let you live?" I asked. "I doubt he would give you a second chance." That made him quiet.

"That's right. He will kill me, but there are more of us." He said smiling. "They are even stronger than me. One of them will get you and I can almost assure you that you are going to lose someone." He said looking at me. "Tell me, how many are you willing to watch die?"

I said nothing deciding that we were done talking. He began shaking and gritted his teeth in pain. We backed away a little bit giving him room to die. Before long he could not hold in the pain. He groan and jerked all the while clutching at his chest in pain. A white mist began to seep from him. _Could that be his soul?_ I thought as I watched.

His body began to break down. Skin peeled from him soon becoming dust revealing his bones. The mist flowed from his chest and he sputtered blood as he tried to deal with the pain with some amount of dignity. It only took a few minutes before there was nothing more than a pile of bones. I knew that only I had seen his soul leave his body.

"He's gone." Cloud said. "While you were gone we learned that someone else around here has a gun-arm like Barret. We were going to try and find him, but I think after that we might need a little rest."

"Dyne could be anywhere watching us. We'll just have to wait for him to do something. When he does...I want to handle it myself." Barret said. He obviously felt responsible.

**Author: **Well that's one baddy gone. Haven't decided who they'll fight next. I'm not in school anymore. I graduated. Now I'm out looking for a job. So far only one person has emailed me back. Seems pretty interested. Wish me luck cause I definitely need it right now.

Anyway, as for the story...I dunno when I might update. I'd like to try to update monthly, but idk if it will actually happen. Maybe later on when things are more stable.


	76. Sadness

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

Ch. 76 Sadness

After a long bath and some rest we started to hear a lot of commotion outside. Everyone was agitated about something and were asking us to handle it. By this time we had already talked to Ester about the Chocobo Races. She was still getting everything set up for us. With the commotion we knew that it was Dyne.

Barret was the first to go investigate, but we were not going to allow him to do this on his own. He could fight Dyne alone, but we would be there if he needed us. Two men were dead and a large group had gathered around them. "Did anyone see who did this?" Barret asked. They all shook there heads. No one had seen anything, but they had all heard the screams and the gunfire.

"Probably headed out there." I said pointing out towards the desert.

"There's a small cliff area over there. He might be hiding out there." Someone told us. Barret was gone before he was even finished. We chased after him hoping that he would not do anything too stupid.

"Dyne!" He shouted at him. Dyne turned around and laughed at what he saw.

"Barret. You look so pathetic. I'm surprised you would even show your face here."

"Dyne.,,," Barret looked at the ground his shame showing through. We remained silent.

"You should be ashamed. And I'll take my revenge." He said to him. "No one better interfere." He said to the rest of us.

When the fight started none of us were really sure who was going to win. They were evenly matched. Both had about the same skills, but Dyne was very determined not to lose and was giving it his all. Barret was going a bit easy on him. In a way it looked like he wanted to die. He wanted Dyne to be free of his hatred. It dragged on for a while and we found ourselves in the firing line. I had to dodge and deflect a few bullets from Dyne who gave me a rather odd look.

When Dyne finally stopped fighting unable to continue Barret tried to help him, but he refused. Dyne still angry began rambling a bit on the past and how everything he loved had been taken from him all because of him. He slowly made his way to the cliff gazing silently down into the darkness. "My life ends now, I'll see you both soon." He whispered closing his eyes. He was preparing to jump.

"Dyne! Marlene is alive!" Dyne looked at him in disbelief. "It's true. I took her in afterward. I felt so bad. It was all I could do for letting you die. It doesn't have to end this way."

"Heh. Guess I shoulda known." He said turning back to the darkness. "Still I'll see her again." He gave Barret a brief glance then pulled out something and tossed it to him. "Give her that." He said before plunging into the depths. Barret tried to stop him, but it was fruitless. Dyne did not want to be saved.

We said nothing for a time. Then Barret got up as if nothing were wrong. "We should get back and get the hell out of here." He said brushing past us. We just nodded glad that it was over and done with.

Back in the prison Cloud went and talked with Ester. Part of me was a bit jealous that he was going to get to race while we were stuck waiting to find out the results. He promised to win and get us out of here. We were stuck waiting for over an hour before she came back to get us. She had a big grin on her face, but then told us it took two tries.

Cloud looked a little disappointed that he had not done better, but he was glad to see us. "Everything has been taken care of. Because of the misunderstanding we'll be giving you a buggy to leave the desert with. It's yours to do whatever you want with." Ester told us smiling.

"That's great! Won't have to walk for a change." Tifa said a little excited.

"Where to now?" Aeris asked. Looking at the map we all decided Gongaga first so we could resupply and check out the reactor. I saw the look on her face when we mentioned it. She looked very solemn all of the sudden. Then I remembered Zack. _He was from there._

When we arrived we found what I expected. Lots of grass and the Turks. We followed behind them hoping to learn something. I made sure to stay in the back. I was the most easily spotted with my hair. Once they were gone we looked around, but found very little of use. Once in the town we all got the sense of despair. They have suffered a lot.

There were few people outside. A woman sat in front of a grave placing fresh flowers there. A few children played in the street, but that was about it. There was someone familiar that I recognized and never imagined seeing here.

"Usher?" I said walking up to him. He looked up at me and smiled.

"Lilia! I can't believe it!" He said getting up and hugging me. "You haven't changed a bit."

"You can let go now!" He was squeezing me into his chest. Everyone else had gathered around us curious as to who he was.

"Ah, I remember you. I forget your name, sorry." Usher said looking at Aeris.

"We only met briefly once or twice. Aeris Gainsborough."

"Oh that's right. You were dating Zack as I recall. Sorry to hear about his death. He was a good soldier." Usher said. She merely nodded with a sad smile.

"When did you move here?" I asked changing the subject. I remembered him living in Midgar, but I can imagine why he would want to move.

"Not too long after you disappeared. Essentially they fired me. Said I wasn't doing my job, but I guess you could say I wasn't." He said laughing a little.

"They grew up." I said looking at his children. His son glanced at me briefly. I could see that he did not know who I was. His daughter seemed to remember, but I suppose someone like me would be hard to forget.

"Yeah. It was hard at first, but we managed." He said. "Shinra still gives me money. Forced me to retire. I don't mind tho. I thought getting away from the city would help us move on."

"Yeah, but why here?"

"Now I know it doesn't look like much, but it's quiet. Since the reactor's been out of commission Shinra don't come out too much."

Behind us I heard Cloud clearing his throat. "You gonna introduce us?"

"I'm sorry. Where are my manners. I've started to ramble a bit at my age." I just shook my head. "If you're her friends then you're mine too. My name is Usher. I use to train Soldiers at Shinra. Taught her everything she knows about fighting. Probably the only reason you're still alive." He said that last part more quietly, but jokingly.

"I see." Cloud said. Everyone introduced themselves and he invited us inside.

"So...what brings y'all here to Gongaga?" He asked sitting down. "Make yourselves comfortable."

"Well...I'm sure that you might have heard what's been going on in Shinra lately." I said.

"Yes. Reports say the president had an illness and died, but I doubt that. With the technology they have, and the fact that everyone there has been treated by Hojo, an illness wouldn't do the trick." Usher said.

"You keep tabs don't you?" He nodded. "You are right. He was murdered. Now Rufus is taking control of Shinra." He merely nodded to this. "It was Sephiroth who killed him."

"Sephiroth?" He said sitting up straighter. "You're kidding?" We shook our heads. "Thought that boy was dead. Everyone thought the same about you though. Guess I should've known. He was stronger than anyone I have ever trained." Then he sat back a little and laughed. "Good for him. Old fart deserved to die."

"So you knew him?" Cloud asked. Usher nodded. He seemed to have noticed his reaction to his name. I could tell that he had wanted to say something to me, but realized it might be a bad idea. It really was not his place to get involved if he did not have to. "Then you know what he did five years ago?" Again he nodded. "We need to find out what he's up to. Whatever it is...it can't be good."

"Hmm. What happened in Nibelheim was terrible, but I still can't figure it out. It's not like him to do something like that." He looked at me. "Of course, you could say he wasn't in his right mind at the time."

"Sounds like you knew him pretty well." Tifa said.

"Few people did. It was hard for him to get close to people. He grew up in Shinra and that just isn't a place for a child. Made him cold, but not many people showed him any compassion."

"We should go. Stay too long and we might lose him." Barret suggested. Cloud nodded, but knew that was not quite true. Sephiroth wanted us to follow him and he knew it.

"Well, you're welcome anytime. Be careful. If you do get in a fight with him don't expect it to be easy. They didn't call him the demon for nothing." Everyone left, but he stopped me. "Keeping something like that from them isn't a good idea. Some of them won't take it easy."

"I know. It was good to see you."

"You should visit Zacks parents. They'd like to see some of his friends." He motioned towards their house when he said it. I nodded and left.

"What did he say." Aeris asked.

"Said we should visit Zacks parents since we knew him." Aeris looked away. "It's ok if you can't do it." She shook her head.

"No. I can."

They looked so sad. They did not tell us much at first. After we told them how we knew him they opened up a little. Said it was hard for them. They were never informed of his death by Shinra. They had always assumed that when they had not heard from him that something had happened. Cloud and everyone else stayed outside. Too many people would not be good for them at this point. Aeris told them how they met and how he treated her. I did the same, but sugar coated mine a little bit. They did not need to know where we actually met. It was not the best place to make friends or meet people.

Afterward we left Gongaga and headed toward Cosmo Canyon. Red seemed rather excited to be home. I imagine he thought he might never see it again. Out of nowhere the buggy stops. "What happened." Tifa asked. Cloud was in the front trying to restart the buggy.

"It won't start."

"It's smoking! I'm getting out!" Tifa said opening the door. We got out and watched as the men gave it a once over. "It's broken. Maybe someone here can fix it?"

"This is my home. Someone should be able to help." Red told us. Entering the town Red went in rather excitedly. We were stopped by the man at the entrance. Red finally noticed that we were not with him and came back to get us. "They're my friends. Let them in."

We followed after him up the mountain to the observatory. Bugenhagen introduced himself to us and thanked us for helping Nanaki. We talked for a while and got on the subject of Shinra and the planet. He basically said everything that Barret wanted to hear on the subject so they got along great.

"In a way the planet is crying." He said. "I hear the cries of our world, but there is little that I can do."

"Hm. I had planned on moving Avalanche here one day, but plans change." Barret said.

"I can see that you are concerned for the planet and its wellbeing. There is something I want to show you that I think you will appreciate. However, the space is rather small. Only four people can fit." He told us. This meant Bugenhagen, Cloud, Barret and one other person. Red and Cait sith opted out of it. Tifa, Aeris and I didn't care who they picked. For whatever reason Cloud chose me. I was actually a bit surprised. I figured he would want to show Aeris, but he is still trying to get something out of me. At least I have been fairly honest with them so far.

Inside the small observation room the lights went dark and the mechanism started up. The universe lay before us. It was interesting to see it like that, but I knew it was very limited as well. Their view of space was still small since the space program had gone pretty much nowhere. Bugenhagen explained all of it to us and then let us have a look at it all up close. The sounds we were hearing were a bit disturbing to all of us.

"Those are the cries of the planet. Here they are magnified. Most people cannot hear this." He said noticing how we cringed.

"I can." I told them. "Sometimes I wish I couldn't. Gaia is afraid. She fears, but is hopeful."

"Hm. You hear this from the planet?" He asked me.

"Yes and no. I feel it, but the reason is different. Gaia is a part of me. How could I not hear her?"

"I'm afraid what you mean eludes me."

"She is different from us." Cloud said. "She is..."

"Ah! I have heard whispers. So they speak of you." Bugenhagen said interrupting him.

"Whispers?"

"Mm. The dead. I hear the planet, but I also hear other things sometimes." He said. "I fear there will be many hardships for you, but I'm sure you will overcome. I truly believe that you people can save Gaia." He said with a smile. "Well, shall we rejoin your friends now?" We nodded ready to go.

"You never told us that." Cloud said stopping me. "You can talk to us. Please remember that." He seemed a bit concerned about me. He thought that I bottled it all up. In a way he was right about that.

"I know. You just...don't know how hard it is." I told him. "Besides, there are things I keep to myself. Things you don't need to know. Maybe one day...I'll tell you, but not now." He just nodded.

"So how was it?" The girls asked me.

"You would like it. You should go next time." I told them.

"Alright." Cloud said. "We need to fix the buggy so we can move on." We looked around and Cloud managed to find someone willing to fix the buggy for us.

"Well the buggy will be fixed hopefully by tomorrow or the next day." Cloud told us. "In the meantime we should rest." We all sat around the fire in town talking for hours before we went to sleep. Essentially we learned a lot more about each other and our lives before all this. I kept myself a little reserved. There were things that I had not told them and things they really did not need to know. They asked about my life and I'm fairly sure I confused them a little bit.

**Author:** Been a while. For a little while I lost this chapter. I got a roommate and misplaced a few things. Anyway, now you know what happened to Usher. Next after the buggy's fixed they get to Nibelheim. Anyone who's played the game knows what that means. What do you think will happen? Will her secret finally come out?

I have a possible job that pays really well, but holds weird hours next month. I thank my new step-dad for that. It's with his ex-wife. So as long as he doesn't make her angry I should get the job. Sounds promising. That other one pulled the ignore thing. I'm getting really tired of that to be honest. The least they can do is have the balls to tell me no.


	77. Nibelheim

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up! **And since it's been a while you're getting two chapters in one day. Feel special cuz I just wrote this.

Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit. –**Edward R Murrow**

Ch. 77 Nibelheim

We arrived in Nibelheim and I felt so tense knowing that he was here. No one seemed to notice since they were more focused on the state of the town. Barret was thinking that it was rather fishy to see the town so full of life after hearing about what happened here. Everyone had the impression that it would be almost a ghost town.

Shinra had done a pretty good job of bringing the town back to life. It was full of people and rather lively for a city that burned to the ground. "I thought you said the town burned?" Barret asked Cloud.

"It's not a lie. I can still remember the heat from the flames." He replied sighing. "I don't know what this is. What a joke."

"Do you recognize anyone?" I asked him. Cloud shook his head.

"I don't know who they are."

"Well, let's have a look around. Maybe we'll figure out what's going on." I said hoping to cheer him up a little bit. Cloud nodded. We went into every house questioning the people. None of them would admit that there had even been a fire here. They acted as if we were crazy, but they were hiding something. There were also a few suspicious people in town as well. None of them said anything that made sense. I knew what they were, but the others had no idea and no choice, but to dismiss them.

"They're hiding something. I bet there aren't many people who really know what happened here five years ago. I bet Shinra did all of this to dispel the rumors of what Sephiroth did. Having the town rebuilt as it was with people living here is hard to dispute." Cloud said.

"Looks that way. They've all been given a story. A life to act out till they die. I imagine they make a lot of money too." I said.

"It's possible. There's only one place we haven't looked yet." Cloud said looking over towards the mansion. "Shinra mansion."

"Looks abandoned." Tifa said.

"Maybe…but there might be something of interest in there." I said cursing myself on the inside. _He's in there! What the hell is wrong with me? I don't wanna go in there!_ I thought scolding myself. _Although, Vincent is there too. Guess it won't hurt to help him out too._

I decided to make that my mission. I found the paper with Hojo's writing. I rolled my eyes at it, but went along with it. Vincent was my favorite character in the game. I was kind of excited to actually meet him. I read off the clues. Everyone hoped this would lead us somewhere.

After getting the combination it took several tries to get it right. After fighting a monster we got a key. Everyone else was curious, but a little bummed out that a key was the only in the safe worth anything.

Down the secret spiral staircase far below was the passage leading to them. I checked the door first and found it locked as suspected. Using the key to open it I heard a lot of grumbling from them. All this looked like was a bunch of nothing, but a more thorough examination of the room we found Vincent.

"Leave me alone." He said to us.

"Who are you?" Cloud asked. "And why would anyone be down here like this?"

No answer. "Hojo did this, right?" I said. He merely glanced at me and then nodded. "I know what that's like." I said more quietly.

"Are you looking for him? For Sephiroth?" He asked finally opening his eyes. We nodded. "I see." He thought for a moment before saying more. "Vincent." Then he reached up and closed the coffin.

"That was odd." Cloud said. "There's another room to explore maybe we'll find something there that will help us."

We left and went into the library room. Sephiroth was in the back waiting for us. He stood at the desk looking carefully at everything on it. "So you've arrived." He said.

"Sephiroth! What are you doing."

"Tell me…do you know of Reunion?" He said still facing away.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Cloud said angrily.

"Then come. Cross the mountain and find me. Then you will see…Reunion…." He turned around briskly and threw a material at cloud hitting him squarely in the gut. It was hard enough to hurt him. Sephiroth started to leave, but stopped in front of me. He said nothing, but grabbed my chin to look at me. I had been looking down the whole time. Seeing him like that was painful.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud swung at him, but missed. Sephiroth was fast. He quickly moved behind me and put one arm around my neck lifting me off the ground. "Let her go!" I struggled trying to force him to let go, but he had always been stronger than I.

"What shall I do? Keep this up and she'll run out of air." He said laughing.

_I told you. This will be fun!_ Jenova said to me through him.

I was struggling to breathe. _Sephiroth! Stop. _"Let go!" I screamed at him. I hoped hearing me would help. Maybe it would somehow jog his memory or loosen her hold enough for him to remember. The lack of air started to make me panic. I was crying a little and digging my nails into his arm.

"Please, let her go." Cloud said now very concerned.

_I can't hold on much longer. I'm gonna pass out before long. He always did have an iron grip._ I was thinking. I had no idea how long it had been. My arms gave out and flopped down to my sides. I faintly heard them shouting my name.

* * *

_I can stop him. If you like?_

_Who?..._

_You remember don't you?_ That voice did sound familiar. I have heard it before, but couldn't place it.

_It's me…or rather I'm you…. So, do you want my help or not?_

_I remember! Y-you killed those people! Why would I want your help?_

_We're not strong enough to kill him yet. It mightl hurt, but he'll live._

_What about everyone else?_

_That's up to you…._

_Fine. Don't kill anyone!_

_Heh heh heh…._

* * *

"Looks like she's giving up. Won't be long." Sephiroth told them.

They were all ready for a fight, but none of them knew what to do. Sephiroth had the upper hand. He had a hostage and they were running out of time, but then they noticed something. Something was moving on the ground. The shadows were swirling around his feet. They looked back up and noticed something else. Lilia's face. She had a strange look on her face and was smiling.

Sephiroth finally noticed it too. "What is this?" He whispered. He tightened his grip.

"HAHAHAHAHA! You can't stop it!" Lilia said.

Fluid spikes spring up all around him and latched themselves onto his body. He found himself unable to move. "What is this?" He said angrily. He was no longer holding onto Lilia. She had simply disappeared into the shadows. The darkness began to engulf him. He growled in anger.

"Better run. Least the darkness consume you." She said standing in front of him now. She too was covered in swirling shadows. The look on her face was strange. Neither him nor Jenova could identify what they were looking at. Sephiroth frowned at her and then disappeared in a flash of light. The shadows disappeared with him. "Heh heh heh."

"Lilia?" Cloud took a tentative step forward. She merely turned her head and smiled a frightening smile. "Who are you?" The smile widened and then vanished into a frown. Her face changed contorted with pain as she screamed and clutched her head. "What…."

She collapsed onto the ground unconscious. No one moved for a moment. "What was that?"

Aeris ran over to help me. "Lilia? Can you hear me?"

"I think she needs to rest." Cloud said. He gently and cautiously picked her up. Vincent surprised everyone.

"I heard everything. Perhaps if I come with you I'll find what I'm looking for." He said looking at Lilia the whole time. "Sephiroth did this?"

"Well…sort of…." Cloud replied. "We should get to the inn."

* * *

"W-what happened?" I said trying to get up. Cloud stopped me shaking his head.

"What do you remember?" Cloud asked me.

"Um…Sephiroth was choking me. It went dark and there was a voice." I paused remembering it all. I had seen everything and it had taken a lot of effort to stop myself from hurting them.

"A voice?"

"Mine I think. It was asking me if I wanted help. I'm not sure what happened."

"You…somehow fought him off. What you did…I've never seen anything like it. It was…." Cloud broke off unsure of how to explain.

"You scared us. It looked like someone else. Like you were going to hurt us." Aeris said.

"I'm sorry. I don't want to hurt any of you." I said. I looked around and saw Vincent sitting by the window. "You're here too?" He nodded rather uninterested.

"You still have a lot to tell us." Cloud said.

"I know. That I think I can explain." I said sitting up. "I guess you could say it's something I gained from being a lab rat for Hojo." This seemed to get more of Vincent's attention. "It just happened one day out of nowhere. Not sure why or even how." I said. I looked down at my shadow and nodded to it. It shivered a little and then moved to stand up and then came into our realm. She stepped out from the wall making everyone jump. It was a bit creepy to see for the first time. "I was fighting a monster the first time it happened."

"So it does whatever you tell it to?"

She glared at him a little bit and crossed her arms. "Not exactly. She can do what she wants, but I do have some control. I can do other things with shadows too, but it's not easy to do."

"Looked easy to me." Cloud said remembering what happened.

"That wasn't exactly me doing that." I told them. She disappeared back into the wall feeling that she was no longer needed. "Call it something else I gained from Hojo." I said looking solemn.

"I see." Cloud said thinking. "Just don't let it get out of control. We'll leave once you've recovered."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry. What're friends for?" Cloud replied.

**Author:** Yay Vincent! He is one of favorite characters…cuz he's awesome. So they still don't know her connection with Sephiroth. It'll come eventually.


	78. Rockets and Annoying Ninja's

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

Ch. 78 Rockets and annoying Ninja's

"Lilia, wake up. I have a surprise for you." Sephiroth said.

"Nnh. I don't wanna." I replied.

"C'mon. Get up. I have something I want to show you."

"What?" I said cracking open my eyes. He was leaning over me smiling.

"I think you'll like it." He said pulling me up.

"Like what?"

* * *

"LILIA!"

"What!" I shouted at Tifa. She had apparently been trying to get my attention for a few minutes and was now a little angry.

"We're going." She said leaving. I had been staring out the window thinking about Sephiroth. I was not sure what to do about him. Or what I was going to eventually say to them about the whole situation.

"Are you sure you're ok. You shouldn't think too much about it." Aeris told me. "Don't worry." She said smiling.

"That's easy for you to say. You don't have to deal with it." I told her frowning.

We were going to cross the mountain today. Rocket town was on the other side so we were going to head there and see what we could find. I was also wondering when another one of them were going to show up. It had been a while, but I suppose they were watching pretty carefully. We had also taken to time to bring Vincent up to speed. After hearing about all of that he looked at me very differently.

I could see that Cloud was having a hard time as well. His memories of Sephiroth were not quite right, but they were all he could remember. He remembered the trip up the mountain. When we reached an area that was significant to him he would pause and survey the area as he remembered the events. Tifa was remembering as well.

Both of them had painful memories of what happened. I could see that. After a while I noticed that we weren't alone. Someone was following us. I made sure that everyone knew. They were being quite discreet. I listened hard and recognized the sound it made. "A puppet." I was trying to use my shadow and find it.

"Maybe I can flush him out here." We were at the reactor. _Not much further till we cross the mountain_.

"This looks fine. We should be careful around the reactor though." Cloud said looking around. I just nodded. I had found it and my shadow was preparing to sneak up on it. She slunk through the shadows and then pounced like an animal. The puppet just barely managed to avoid the attack and ended up leaping down into the open area it had just been observing. This one reminded me of that strange man inside the Abyss, but I had never heard his name.

Everyone stared at it for a moment. My shadow stayed put looking out for more targets. I did remember that there should be more of them. This one looked like a fighter. It turned and turned several times looking at all of us. It was trying to figure out what to do. We were all ready to fight. My shadow managed to find another one making sure to point it out to me. This one was shaped like a girl and carried a sword. She was merely watching, but I decided I didn't want her trying to surprise us.

After forcing her to join the other I left my shadow to find the rest if they were there. I also wondered if somewhere nearby their master was watching. So far he was not in the immediate area.

Both puppets faced a different way. The girl was facing me. I got into a defensive position unsure of what they were really capable of. The others were doing much the same. The other one stood rather carefree. His arms at his sides standing straight up. "They aren't afraid of getting hurt. I imagine they won't feel pain." I told them.

The girl suddenly leapt at me. She was fast and strong. Part of me was surprised, but I suppose that in this form they could do far more than normal. _My god. It's like fighting a person. She's very skilled._

Everyone was fighting now. Vincent did well to slow down the boy puppet so the others could get to him. Red managed to pin him down, but it still struggled. The girl was a lot tougher. She was a good fighter and obviously had a solid strategy to use against us. Pinning her down was going to be hard.

Every time we thought we had her she managed to get away. "This one's smart." Cloud said. "We need a new strategy." I just nodded. My shadow had been standing watch and since no others were around to help I decided she needed to do her part. She came down and attached herself to the puppet. At first no one noticed the difference, but her movements got slower and sloppier. When it appeared that she knew something was wrong she stopped moving altogether. We could see her struggling. Everyone's attention was on her.

That is when reinforcements arrived. A large puppet knocked Red aside. The smaller one hardly seemed to notice the giant hole in its chest. Both of them now came at me hoping to help the girl, but then they suddenly stopped.

"What an interesting trick." A voice said. "You've managed to stop Reiza in her tracks. I couldn't even defeat her in battle when she was alive."

"Who are you?" Cloud shouted at the air. He came forward appearing right next to the girl puppet. He merely glanced at her. He did not really seem worried about us. He ignored Cloud and the others completely and focused on me.

"You're the only one I'm interested in. We weren't formally introduced." He said moving towards me. "My name is Enshii. These puppets you see are my slaves. I made them myself. Fitting for the souls I placed in them don't you think?"

"So then Reiza, you said, she was…."

"She was the leader of a group of mercenaries. She was very good…and still is." He said proudly. "I was very lucky to find her. I made that puppet especially for her." He smiled though it was hardly visible. "Perhaps I should make one for you? Or maybe replace her?"

"Like hell!" I shouted.

He was a good fighter as well, but it almost seemed like he was holding back. His puppets did most of the work. Reiza had somehow managed to force my shadow to let her go. This did seem to make her angry. My shadow started fighting like crazy against her. She managed to put a few holes in her too. None of this affected her though.

"Hurt them all you like they can no longer feel pain. They'll just keep coming." Enshii said taunting us.

"They might not, but I know you do." I threw a lightning spell at him before he could react and he howled in pain.

"Hn. Guess playtime's over." He said. He still seemed to be holding back or rather like he could not fight to his fullest. He decided to come after me.

"Why hold back? I know that you are." I asked him.

"If I didn't then you would die here and now." He stated. He was hoping that it would put a little fear into me, but words did not scare me.

He was very agile and managed to dodge everything I did. Magic slowed him down, but not enough. So we finally decided to barrage him with it. A few of us using one spell at the same time. It would be much stronger that way.

With more opponents to fight things were getting tricky though. It was hard to only concentrate on one. All of them had a different and unique way of fighting and thinking. So while fighting one you might end up getting surprised by another. So we decided to gather together so we could more easily defend against them. I was still wondering why I was not seeing all of the puppets though. It puzzled me. _With them all we would be evenly matched. Unless not all of them can fight._

Three of us hit him with lightning at the same time and he went down. This got the attention of the puppets who rushed to help him. He was hurt enough that he could hardly stand up. "Not bad. Banding together like that. I wasn't expecting that at all." He said. "You've won this round, but next time won't be so easy." He said laughing as they disappeared.

"That was far too easy. We hardly broke a sweat on him." Cloud said.

"The puppets were more work." Barret said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. He was holding back for some reason. That was just a warm up. He'll be back for sure." I told them. "Also, there are more puppets than those three. However, I think not all of them can fight."

"Hm. That works in our favor." Cloud said. Everyone nodded.

"I'm not so sure." I said leaving. "Lets go."

After leaving the mountain we were stopped by none other than Yuffie. I sighed at the sight of her. _Great…she'll be annoying._ She looked at us like a sweet and innocent little girl, but I knew she was just after our materia. Almost everyone ignored her, but when she tried lifting some materia from Vincent he reacted. He grabbed her arm and calmly asked her to let go and give back what she took.

She wiggled her way free and smiled. "You'll have to catch me first." She said running away. Vincent frowned, but made no move to follow her. He really did not need to. I was behind her and she bumped into me pretty hard. I was ready and she fell on her butt. "Ow!" She said trying to cry.

"Stealing is bad for your health." I told her.

"You're mean." She said getting up. "I won't give up. I'm not scared of you!" She said. We fought a little bit, but she ended it. She stood firmly in front of us and started taunting us. She really did not want to give up and leave empty handed. "You know, I bet you're scared of me. I mean I'm a skilled ninja after all." She said confidently.

"Yeah…trembling…." I said sarcastically.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Really, really."

"…." I just nodded this time.

"Alright then I forgive you!"

Twitch. _Forgive me! Little brat._ "Yeah. Whatever." I said faking a smile. "Now about what you took."

"Oh. Sorry. Don't worry I won't do it again." She said trying to hide her smile. "It's just that…I'm all alone and can't afford to have stuff like that."

"You could come with us. That way you won't have to steal. Pull your own weight and we'll help you out." Tifa said. I glared at her. _She's not seriously falling for such a lame story?_

"Really?" She said all starry eyed. Everyone nodded except for me, Vincent and Cloud. It was pretty much decided so we moved on, but we did have to remind her to return the materia.

"Why'd you do that?" Cloud asked me.

"She's just a kid. Fighting us would only hurt her. There was no point. I didn't plan on her joining us though, blame Tifa for that." I told him giving Tifa a small glare. Cloud just sighed shaking his head.

After that little annoyance we found ourselves in Rocket Town. Everyone stood in awe looking at the huge Rocket. I had never actually seen one close up before so even I found myself staring at it.

"Nice isn't it." Someone said out of nowhere. No one said anything. "Its part of Shinra's space program, but it never lifted off." The man said. He really seemed to admire it and the idea of space travel. "Cid is the one who built it. This is his house. You might find him on the rocket if you want to talk to him."

"You admire it a lot don't you?" I said. He nodded.

"It'd be great to go up there. How many worlds do you think there are out there like ours? Wouldn't it be great to meet someone from another world?" He said looking up at the sky. "This place would've been famous." He said shaking his head. He was very disappointed by the fact that the rocket had failed.

"I'm sure it would." For a moment I found myself thinking like him. Earth was so much like this world. Even my enemies came from different worlds. How many are there out there that contain life? _That's why I have to fight. Because so many exist and none of them know what's going on._ No one seemed to notice except for Vincent.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked bringing me out of it. I just shook my head saying nothing.

We talked to everyone gathering information. We also talked to Shera, Cid's assistant. She told us a little about what happened and mentioned that Rufus would be arriving soon. She also told us about the Tiny Bronco. Eventually we went to talk to Cid. Everyone said just about the same thing. It was sad that after all of that work Shinra shut down the space program because of one set back. Albeit a big one.

"What you want now?" Cid said not even looking at us.

"We were just curious about the rocket. This is our first time here." I said sweetly. He sounded kinda angry so I thought it might help.

"Oh." He said looking at us. "New faces huh. Well, as you can see this is Rocket Town. This rocket is the hope for this town. If all goes well when Rufus arrives we'll be back up and running." He said smiling. "Built it from the ground up, with help of course." He said patting the side of the ship.

"You're very proud of it aren't you."

"Yep. A lot of hard work went into this. After the disaster of it's maiden flight Shinra closed the space program, but I fixed her up. I'm just about finished."

"There was something else we wanted to ask you about." Cloud said. "We're looking for someone. He's dangerous and we need to find him."

"That so." He replied.

"What he's getting at is…could we borrow your airplane?" I finished for Cloud. Cid looked at us almost disgusted and then shook his head.

"Sorry, but I can't do that. Don't ask again, got it." He said sounding angry. He was mumbling under his breath as we left. We went back to his house hoping Shera could help us. Rufus arrived shortly after. He came inside and we hid outside waiting for him to leave knowing that he would have to go to the rocket to talk to Cid. Shera steered him in the right direction. She did question our reaction to him, but then told us not to worry about it.

Cid came back cursing. "Shera! Wha-" He looked at us and clenched his fist. "You people. It's bad enough that you annoy me, but now Rufus comes in doing the same thing."

"He isn't going to reinstate the space program?" Shera said.

"No. That bastard said he wanted to use the Tiny Bronco to chase after someone."

"They're after Sephiroth as well." Cloud said.

We started hearing noises outside. Like an engine starting. Cid and Shera realized what it was first. "The Tiny Bronco!" We all went outside and found Palmer starting up the plane. "You little fuck!" Cid yelled as he flung Palmer out of the plane. Palmer laid on the ground whimpering.

"The plane!" Shera shouted. It was moving and it was too late to just stop it.

"Get on!" I shouted over the engine. I had already gotten on the plane. Cid jumped into the cockpit. And everyone else just got on wherever they could.

"It's jamming up. I can't stop it." Cid said.

"Works for us. Let's leave Shinra in the dust!" I shouted back to him. He just laughed and gave me a thumbs up.

On the ground Rufus was watching everything. He was clearly upset after seeing all of us flying away on the plane he wanted to use. He had some soldiers with him and immediately told them to shoot us down.

"Incoming! Hold on tight!" Cid shouted. He did his best to avoid the gunfire, but they still managed to hit the plane. Smoke plumed from the side. "Dammit! We're going down."

We did not crash. Cid did pretty good keeping it going. We just landed in the water although he did admit that he thought we were going to die. _That was real comforting._ He did what he could to fix it just enough that it would move, but he could not get enough speed out of it to fly with what he had.

"Where to now?" I asked them.

"Can't go back. We do and they'll lock us all up." Cid said. He was looking around.

"My hometown is just over there if you need to go somewhere safe." Yuffie suggested. I saw the gleam in her eye, but we really did not have much choice. Everyone liked the idea even if it was a bit out of the way. Rufus would not follow us there.

So we went. About halfway there Yuffie showed her true colors. She disappeared and we were out of materia. Everyone gave Tifa a glare. She just glared back. "We should head to town. That's probably where she went."

"Should've guessed. Wutai was hit hard after the war ended. Shinra took away everything so they could never fight back." Cid said.

The town looked almost dead. No one was walking around in the street. We had managed to catch a glimpse of Yuffie on the way into town. She ran around a building and was gone. The girl was pretty good at hiding. For a while no one in town would say anything. However, we could see that they were slightly annoyed by her as well. After talking to a few people and managing to find then lose some more materia someone told us where she went.

And we even found the Turks drinking at the bar. Since they were on "vacation" they were not going to bother us, but Elena looked determined to do something. However, Rude stopped her. "We're on vacation right now. That means we'll be ignoring you."

"You got lucky again, huh?" Reno said laughing. I rolled my eyes at him and left waving slightly. Even though we were on opposite sides I really had no problem with them and I could see that both of them struggled with their feelings. Both of them considered me a friend, but Elena had no such connection. I could hear her complaining to them. Both of them seemed to be ignoring her until Rude slammed his cup on the table. That shut her up.

Yuffie headed up to Godo's house, so we followed. No one was outside, but a servant inside was sure to let us know that he was asleep. When questioned about Yuffie she frowned, but said she had not seen her. "We need to find her." Cloud said irritated at the situation.

At first Godo completely ignored us. Finally he left his room and spoke with us briefly. "I'm sorry for what she has done. I can understand her reasoning, but I never taught her to steal from people." He told us. She had been listening and came out of hiding.

"How can you just take it? We need the materia, but Shinra won't let us have any."

"Get out, Yuffie, and give back what you stole from these people."

"No way!" She shouted running outside. We gave chase and played hide and seek a little bit before getting really annoyed and surrounded her so she could not get away from us. "Alright! I give up."

"We want what you stole." Cloud said sternly. She just whimpered and pointed towards Godo's Pagoda.

"I put it all in the basement." She told us. Cloud kept a keen eye on her. "It's in here. Just pull the left lever down." She told Cloud while standing by the entrance. I stayed close by her knowing that it was a trap no matter what we did. Cloud pulled it and a cage came down trapping Tifa, Aeris, Red XIII, and Cid. All of them were quite surprised. Yuffie took the opportunity to run for it without even trying to gloat. Smart on her part.

After getting them out of the trap we raced after her. She had headed up the mountain hoping it would be hard for us to follow, but I knew that she was just heading for trouble. Someone I was not looking forward to seeing was going to be there. Reno was outside the bar and he confirmed that she had headed that way. He mentioned Don Corneo to us as well saying that he had taken Elena and headed up the mountain.

"And you're not going to help her?" I said raising an eyebrow to him.

"Rude thought that since you guys were involved that we'd just sit back for now. We won't just let him keep her." In his mind I could hear him thinking that she kind of deserves this. She had been annoying them for a while so this was payback. But he did feel kind of bad for doing it.

We headed up the mountain and found both Elena and Yuffie tied up on the mountain dangling dangerously on a cliff. Both of them looked at us and were asking for help as they insulted Don Corneo. He laughed when he saw us. I just rolled my eyes.

"Hahaha. Now I have the upper hand and this time you won't be getting away! I will have my bride. And if you try anything..." He said holding out a control pad. "I'll be dropping these lovely girls on their heads." He said with a smile. We watched as Yuffie was flipped over so that she was upside down. She complained the entire time and then started freaking out. He had no intention of doing so though.

We ended up fighting a monster. Another creation that he called Rapps. It was rather easy to defeat and all the while the rest of the Turks were working there way up the mountain as well. They were simply watching our fight. And when the fight was over Corneo freaked out and was about to drop them when Reno and Rude stepped in. On shot took care of the controls and another scared him so much he almost fell.

"I think you're finished." Rude said to him. Reno came up behind us smiling evily.

"Yeah. You are. Mess with us again and you'll never see the light of day. Got it?" Reno told him. Corneo whimpered and nodded shaking. He was scared of them and knew exactly who they were and what they were capable of.

"Shinra won't forget what you've done. I suggest that you go home." Rude said not really wanting to do more. They were still supposed to be on vacation and this was ruining it.

"D-don't worry. I won't." He said.

Reno turned to us and smiled. "Well that's done. Don't worry. You helped us out so we'll let you go for now and won't even mention that you were here."

"Reno!" Elena shouted. He turned on his heel and found Rapps lumbering towards him. Reno knocked him back easily. He was weak from fighting us. He ended up falling and Don Corneo followed him. Rude had taken care of him.

"What a nuisance." He stated shaking his head.

"Excuse me, but could you hurry up and get us down? I'm getting sick." Yuffie said. Rude just rolled his eyes knowing that we were dealing with the same as them. After that was over they hinted that we should head towards Gongaga. There was something that we might find interesting there, but getting in would be hard.

"Maybe the locals in the area might know something?" I mentioned. Cloud was ready to leave. Everyone was. This place had been nothing but trouble since we arrived. They were now realizing that it had been a bad idea to come there.

**Author:** Well, now Yuffie and Cid are in the group and I'm sure everyone knows what part will be coming up soon. You'll just have to wait and see how things turn out. I plan on using the next chapter to show what the baddies are up to. Enshii may have been beaten, but what will he do now?


	79. Bonus! Link

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

**Bonus **

Link: Man of the desert

"You've failed. Do you really think your master will let you live?" Lilia said to Link. "I doubt he would give you a second chance." That made him quiet.

"That's right. He will kill me, but there are more of us." He said smiling. "They are even stronger than me. One of them will get you and I can almost assure you that you are going to lose someone." He said looking at her. "Tell me, how many are you willing to watch die?"

Those were the last words he uttered. His death was coming. Inside of the Abyss Scythe would be chanting the incantation to release the spell that kept him alive. He would be snuffed out. It had been a long life for him. Longer than it should have been. He could not help, but look back on the many times in his life where he should have died.

Even in his childhood death seemed to follow him around. His mother died when he was six. She had a disease and his father only pretended to really care. He was too busy ripping other people off. Once she was gone his father started teaching him the trade, but at a price.

"Now you've gotta learn to take care of yourself, boy."

That is what he said to him. He beat him if he tried to leave, or disobeyed. With his mother gone now he had no reason to pretend. He had loved her after all. It was his gift to her. However, he had never really wanted a family life. Having a son just seemed to get in his way. Though he did get angry when others felt the need to beat him as well.

As a child of Grissom Langely you got the short end of the stick. Most people who lived there knew him and what he did. Many felt sorry for him because of his wife, but after she died so did their pity. They were treated as scum.

He taught him about reading people and how to lead conversations. It took a long time for him to master, but as soon as he did his father started to cash in. There were several times when it went wrong or he sabotaged it one purpose. He started to hate it, but also knew what awaited him if he did not do as he was told. As he grew older he grew cold to the world and started to hate it. He wished to die, but for some reason it never happened. Even though he wanted it he could never just stand by and be killed. All of his spite and hate towards him led him to think that he no longer needed to live. Then he met him. It had started all of this for him. He had grown up and had left his father behind.

* * *

"W-what are you doing boy? I'm your father!" He shouted sputtering blood. He was beaten and cut and mutilated. He had started the torture before his father woke up. He was pleased to hear the man scream.

"This is for everything, father. For the beatings and abuse you put me through." He said laughing stabbing him several times. He fought back, but Link had grown strong. "Now I repay you for this life."

"Y-you little shit! I should've killed you back then, but..."

"But I made the money." Link finished for him. "And now...you die." He slashed his throat watching the blood spurt and flow from him. He just stood there and watched with a smile on his face. "Finally, now you pay for your sins." He said leaving. He honestly didn't care if they found out what he did. He had the right. Everyone knew the kind of person his father had been.

* * *

Thinking about it made him smile. However, all of that had ended up following him. He could not forget and suddenly his mother came to mind. He ignored the gnawing of his conscience. He had left his home and traveled far away finding himself in the neighboring kingdom. Once again he was living in the desert.

It was a small town. Almost no military. But it was a nice place to live and for him a pretty nice place to hide. He could take all of the things he learned and use them to build himself a new life and identity. For him it was rather easy. He had the entire town believing that he was someone else. He had a bounty on his head for killing a number of people. He had become a mercenary. It made him laugh that one of the bills was actually for the murder of his father. After years of killing he opted for a break. If he just disappeared then eventually people would forget about him. He would become a story and then come out of hiding. He had a nice store of money that would last him a while if he used it wisely, but it would eventually dry up.

He managed to live quietly for some time, but in his absence war started to break out. Somehow he had been keeping things calm. Although he could not take all of the credit nor did he want to. He cared little for the world. _Let them kill and be killed. I too wish to die._ He thought to himself. He lived a carefree sort of life. No one here bothered him and even though he had heard rumors of his old country seeking his blood they had yet to find him.

However, this carefree life was soon to end. Link found himself dragged into the war. He fought hoping that it would end his miserable existence, but he lived on. As he was he was too strong for most and he ended up killing more people. Now he had exchanged a ball and chain as his main weapon. He still held onto the knife if he really needed it. His original intention was to use it on himself, but something in him would not allow it.

Suddenly he was seeing faces he remembered from home. People he knew were fighting for their country. They still saw him as that boy who was the son of a con-artist. They scoffed, but it was short lived.

"You ran away after killing your father? Can't say I blame you for doing it. He was scum and turning you into the same." One of them said.

"And what of you? You who were better than us, what did you do? Sat and watched as he abused me. Ignored the blood on me. Pretended that we didn't exist?" Link said to him. The man shook his head.

"No. I pitied you for the life you were given, but what could I do? That man, scum that he was, was no fool. You were the only one who ever fooled him."

"Heh. True. I did, but he taught me how. Sorry, but I don't want this life. So if you can't kill me then you will join them." Link said motioning towards the dead lying around him. He raised his weapon ready to attack, but something odd happened. The man before him suddenly dropped his weapons. "What?" He fell to the ground sputtering blood. He was dead. Link looked around almost angry that he had died like that. But whoever did this was strong. That made him want to meet them. Perhaps they had the solution that he was looking for.

"You are strong, but you desire death above all. Why when you could do so much?" A voice said.

"Because...I don't care what happens!"

"If you don't care then why not join me?" A man suddenly appeared before him.

"Who are you?" Link said perplexed. This man he had never seen before actually frightened him. That was something he had not felt in a long time.

"My name is Scythe. I can give you a purpose and you can help me. I need your talents." He said to him with a strange smile. Link stared for a moment unsure of what to do. This man was strange. He covered most of his body and covered himself in mystery. Link had never seen anyone like him before, but who was he really?

"And if I say no?"

"Then you will get your wish of death. As we speak this world is close to destruction. I am offering you a chance to live. You will be free to do as you like so long as you help me." Scythe told him. This did peak his interest, but he was still unsure.

"I don't know...something about this doesn't seem right."

"You've never been concerned with that before. Why would it bother you now?" Scythe asked a little perplexed by his answer. He still did not understand humans. "Perhaps it would be easier if you understood exactly what I am offering you. Come and see with your own eyes. If you still wish for death then I shall grant it to you." He said.

"Heh. Fine." Link replied shrugging. He kept his weapon at the ready.

"Follow closely. If you get lost I will not help you." He followed him as closely as he dared. Suddenly they left the desert and were in a sea of white. The sudden changed made him squint and cover his eyes. "You will become use to the change in time." Scythe stated. Link ignored him and continued to follow him. Just as suddenly as before it was pitch black and he could hardly see Scythe in front of him. He followed in silence.

"We found her." Glaed said happily. She was smiling ear to ear with happiness. She had killed a few people along the way to getting the woman. "She's nothing much at all. I was hoping she would put up a fight." She said showing a hint of disappointment.

"I see you've added another to the group." Siren said eying Link. He examined both of the women and then realized that there was another person there as well. This man was strange. The way he stood watching with his puppets bothered him. _Something about him just isn't quite right._

"Perhaps. He has not chosen just yet." Scythe then became silent as he looked at the girl.

"What are you going to do to me?" She said frightened.

"You my dear, will die." He stated closing his eyes. He chanted in a low voice. They could hardly hear him speaking. The girl became frightened and tried to run, but she could not move. Link watched silently. He did not care for this at all. Suddenly the girl began to scream. The sound of it disturbed link a bit, but he remained silent. When it stopped Glaed came in and grabbed her. She was bleeding now and had lost her voice. She looked more frail now than ever.

"What was that?" Link asked. He did not see the significance of what had happened.

"Your world will soon perish. This girl is a trigger." Scythe replied. "You wish for death. Tell me, if all of the worlds perished how would you feel."

"Nothing. I care not." Link replied. Part of him was not sure what to say.

"Hm. That is my goal. Somewhere out there someone is waiting for us. The key to life itself. Don't you think that if we started over afresh, life would be better?" Link remained silent. "Here we can manipulate things. Change them to our designs, but first we need a clean slate."

"A clean slate?" Link repeated. He thought for a moment. _Is that was I was really looking for. A clean slate. Perhaps what I thought was wrong. Death would not give me that. The dead still suffer the pains of their past life._ He wondered if that were really true.

"The dead hold onto their feelings from life. Some cannot let go." Scythe replied in answer. "I can give you something more than death. I can give you a new life. A clean slate as it were."

"I see." Link said finally willing to accept this man and what he was doing. "I will help you until I choose otherwise or until I am to die." He said. The smile on Scythe's face gave him an unnerving feeling.

* * *

"So it would seem that Link has left us." Scythe said shortly after releasing the spell on him. Everyone was gathered around him waiting to hear news of the fight. Glaed was happy that he had not succeeded. She wanted to face the girl.

"Hm. So it would seem that the chase continues." Enshii stated absently.

"Why don't you go next to greet her. Introduce yourself, but don't get carried away." Scythe told him.

"As things are I cannot go against your orders. However, I stand no chance of winning in my current state." Enshii replied.

"We shall see." Sometime later Enshii returned with his puppets all of them wounded. "So things went as expected." Scythe said to him. Enshii nodded. "Fix them and then return to me."

"What will you do?" Enshii asked curiously.

"If you cannot win as you are then perhaps you will need to change." He replied.

Enshii smiled at the thought. He knew what that meant. He would become his old self, but he knew that Scythe would have a few conditions that he must follow. He would gladly comply if it meant he could be himself. These past centuries being trapped as he was had torn a whole in him. He truly started to despise this existence. He would fix the puppets and find new souls for the others so that they were more evenly matched. The smile on his face was now fixed. "I can't wait."

**Author:** There you go. Now you know more about Link's past and what Enshii is going to do. Things could get ugly.

Had a job interview. I think it went well, or at least better than any I've had before. Told me there would be more interviews later on. Something else I have never had. Usually only have one and then they ignore you. Well I hope it goes well. Pays pretty good so that makes me happy.


	80. The Black Materia

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

Ch. 80 The Black Materia

We Headed towards Gongaga, but never quite made it that far. After securing the plane on a beach we headed to a house sitting alone. We figured that he might be a hermit or something, but maybe he would be nice enough to help us out. Lucky for us he dealt weapons. Getting an upgrade before going into the Temple of the Ancients was definitely a good idea. Plus all the other stuff that will happen.

He told us to head to Gold Saucer and talk to Dio. We didn't exactly have fond memories of him though he did apologize and give us a buggy to use. He had what we needed though. Everyone in the area knew about the Temple that sat on the southern island. "Lots of stories and mysterious happenings associated with that place." He said. He warned us to be careful.

Once we arrived at Gold Saucer we headed straight for the Battle Arena hoping to get this matter over with quickly. We were all glad to see everything looked normal again. All the mess from before was cleaned up as if it had never happened. We went over to the side room to examine the Keystone.

"So this is what we need to get into the Temple." Cloud said.

"Apparently." I said absently. Dio had seen us and knew that we were interested in something. When he came in to find us all gathered around the Keystone he smiled.

"So you wish to have that don't you?" Dio said smiling. Cloud nodded. "You aren't the only ones asking for it, but perhaps we can make a deal." He said with a small glint in his eye.

"What kind of deal?" Cloud said raising an eyebrow. He was thinking that Shinra had asked for it too.

"A battle. You fight and try to beat every round. You'll get the Keystone and a battle prize as well." He said smiling more.

"Fine then. I'll do it." Cloud said.

"Good, good!" He said clapping his hands. "Make sure you're prepared. I'll have it set up in no time."

All of this was merely a formality. He planned on giving it to us anyway. Even if Cloud failed after the first round we would still get it. Although, we all would have been disappointed if he had lost so soon. He is kind of the leader of our group. Though I know Barret does not think that way.

After that we became aware that no one could leave. Heading towards the hotel Aeris and Cloud were talking alone. I noticed the piano and wondered if I could still play. _It's been forever since I've touched one. What would I play anyway? _It was a bit dusty. I guess no one plays it very often. I pressed on a few keys and surprisingly it was in tune. I ended up sitting down trying to think of a song.

"So…can you play?" Cid was asking.

"It's been a long time…." I replied. "I don't know if I still can. I use to love playing…and singing."

"Well…go ahead. We'll forgive you if it's bad." He said sipping his drink. Vincent was sitting in the corner trying to ignore Yuffie. Cloud and Aeris were gone. Tifa was already in her room and Barret was too. Nanaki sat by Cid watching everyone silently and no one had seen Cait Sith in a while.

A song did come to mind. Part of me was not even sure if I had known it before or not, but it gave me a strange feeling. Like it was meant to tell me something. I started to play suddenly thinking that this song is not exactly for the piano. _Oh well, there are lyrics too._ I started singing too.

Osanai te ni tsutsunda furueteru sono hikari wo

Koko made tadotte kita jikan no fuchi wo samayoi

_I hid that trembling light in my young hands_

_I've traveled this far, wandering the abyss of time_

Sagashitsudzukete kita yo namae sae shiranai keredo

Tada hitotsu no omoi wo anata ni tewatashitakute

_I continued to search for you, though I know not even your name_

_I wanted to hand over to you just one single feeling_

Toki ha ai mo itami mo fukaku dakitome

Keshiteku kedo watashi ha oboete iru Zutto...

_Times catches deep in its arms both love and pain_

_And erases them, but I remember them_

_And always will..._

Watashi no mune no oku ni itsu kara ka hibiite ita...

Yotsuyu no shizuku yori mo kasuka na sasayaki dakedo

_It's reverberated deep in my breast for I know not how long..._

_Though it's a whisper fainter than a drop of evening dew_

Itetsuku hoshi no yami he tsumugu inori ga

Tooi anata no sora ni todoku you ni...

_May the prayer I spun towards the darkness of the frozen stars_

_Reach all the way to your distant sky..._

When I was done I felt kind of odd. Like for a moment someone else had been there in my place playing and singing. It was a strange feeling. I did not even notice the people who had stopped to listen. My friends all clapped. Well, most of them did.

"Guess you could do it." Cid said smiling. "Not bad, but I've never heard anything like that. What language was that?" I just shook my head still trying to shake off the strange feeling I had gotten.

"I just heard it somewhere. Not sure where." I replied sitting at his table.

"Wow! That was great!" Yuffie said standing in front of us.

"Thanks…." _That song. It had meaning beyond that of a simple tune. Why would I know it so suddenly? Is something calling me?_

"You alright there?" Cid asked seeing the odd look on my face. I just smiled and nodded.

"I think I should go to bed." I said sighing. He just nodded and continued drinking. I left them and went to my room. All of the girls were sharing a room. I went out on the balcony just thinking. "What was that? It was so odd. It was definitely Japanese, but I only remember a few words…none of them helpful." I whispered to myself. "What could it mean?" I looked down and noticed Cait Sith leaving the hotel. "I guess he took it already." I said jumping down to follow him.

I ended up running right into Cloud and Aeris. "Hey, Lilia, what are you doing?" Aeris said smiling. Obviously their date was going well.

"I'm following Cait Sith. He was acting really weird." I said lying to them a little bit.

"He always acts like that." Cloud replied.

"It might be nothing." I said going after him. They followed as well. We were going to the Chocobo Races. "There you are." I said loudly.

The helicopter swooped in front of him and I saw him handing them the keystone. It was the Turks. "The Keystone!" Cloud shouted as he realized what was going on. "Cait Sith?" He leapt at him knocking him on the ground. "So you're a spy!"

"W-well…yes." He said whimpering a little. "I was hoping that you wouldn't see me, but I guess I wasn't sneaky enough." He said looking at me.

"Now what will we do? We can't go into the temple without that." Cloud said thinking. We ended up dragging him back to the hotel so that everyone was aware of what had happened. Also, this way he could not simply run away. We blocked all the exits.

"Well. The Turks are planning on going in first. Apparently what Sephiroth is looking for lies deep within the temple. They want to get it before he does."

"What he's searching for?" Cloud whispered. He was not entirely sure that we should believe him, but at the moment there was not much choice.

"The Black Materia." He replied. "It's a powerful materia that was sealed inside the temple. It took a lot of effort on their part to find it. Sephiroth has been scouring the world in search of it."

"So what will he do with it?" Cloud asked.

"It's a dark spell. One that would be very dangerous for the planet. It could destroy it, but that's all we know about it." Cait Sith said. "Perhaps inside the temple we might find out more."

Everyone did agree with this. We needed to go to the temple to find out what this is all about. We decided to keep him with us even though our trust in him had diminished. We decided to watch him like a hawk. If he tried anything we would ditch him somewhere. In the morning we would leave for the temple.

"The temple is here." Cait Sith said marking it on the map. "It'll take us a few hours just to reach the island. They are ahead of us." We left in a hurry trying to save as much time as possible. We all felt the urgency of what was going on. If Sephiroth got his hands on it first the world would be in trouble. However, Shinra did not need to have it either.

When we arrived we found that the Turks were already there, but they seemed very preoccupied at the moment. Many of them were hurt. "Sephiroth has been here." Cloud whispered. We went inside and found Tseng hurt on the floor. The keystone sat next to him.

"You're here." He said weakly.

"Looks pretty bad." I told him.

"Take the keystone and place it on the altar. Sephiroth has already gone in." He told us. I nodded and handed it to Cloud. He carefully placed it on the altar. A light appeared engulfing all of us. When it disappeared we were in a large maze. It was fairly disorienting to look at.

"Wow! It's so big." Yuffie said in awe. "I hope we don't get lost in here."

We wandered for a bit going where we thought would lead out of there. Eventually we noticed that someone else was there with us. They were small and wore a long purple robe. They seemed to fear us somewhat. We managed to corner them and simply watched as he cowered in fear.

"We're not going to hurt you." Aeris said softly. He looked at us through his hands and slowly revealed his face. "It's ok. We're friends." She said smiling. He muttered something under his breath and stood up.

"To...achi…?" He said in a bit of a questioning tone. Everyone glanced at each other wondering what he was trying to say.

"That's right." I said trying to move things along. This seemed to make him happy. He motioned for us to follow saying something we couldn't understand.

"I take it you don't understand him either." Cloud said giving me a look.

"No, but standing around will get us nowhere. He lives here. He must know where we should go to get to the Black Materia." The moment I said that he froze and turned around looking at me.

"Black Materia….." He repeated. He started shaking.

"We want to stop someone else from getting it. If he does…we'll die." He shook his head as if he did not understand me. "How can I explain…?"

"I think he can understand, but it's hard for him." Aeris said. He was listening to all of us trying to understand us. I could see that he only managed to catch a few words. I tried repeating it more slowly. He seemed to get more this time and I hoped it was enough for him to understand.

Suddenly he smiled and we followed him to what looked like his home. "I think he's inviting us to rest here."

"We're out of the maze now." Cloud said.

"This whole place is one." Cait Sith said. I ignored them we were looking around and I noticed some writing. It looked familiar, but I could not quite recall what it was.

"We should move on. If he's ahead of us then he could already have found the materia." Cloud said reminding us.

We went on making our way to the altar that held the Black Materia. It had been an interesting trip there. The Ancients had set many traps and the ones inside were not too keen on just letting us go in. There was that and Aeris. She was hearing them and it was getting to her. She could hear their pain and fear about the future. I felt it in a way, but I could not hear them. We were also shown images of Sephiroth when he had entered the temple. This disturbed Cloud quite a bit. Just seeing him was enough to get to him. It made me sad to look at him. Seeing him in such a state was hard for me.

_Did I do this?_ That thought stayed with me especially when he was talking about injuring the planet with Meteor. I knew that most of the talk was actually Jenova, but it was his voice. It made me want to cry.

Cloud finally approached the altar and touched the materia. When he did the whole temple shook. He tested it again this time it shook more violently. "Stop!" Cait Sith said suddenly. "I'll do it. It would seem that this whole temple will come down on our heads if we move it. I am just a doll after all." He said.

We did agree that it was the best option. Leaving was not all that easy. They wanted to make it hard for anyone to get this materia. It as a good thing. Meteor is always portrayed as a terrible magic that could destroy the world or kill the caster for attempting it. However, it was kind of a pain for those of us who are simply trying to help. Once outside we watched as the temple collapsed and then vanished before our eyes. A new Cait Sith appeared to replace the old one and no one said a word about that. The materia was still down there.

Cloud and Tifa were the first to go down and get it. As soon as Cloud picked it up he started to act possessed. Sephiroth appeared and was controlling him. He forced Cloud to hand over the materia. None of us could stop him. It was meant to happen. Cloud was fighting him, but not strongly enough. When Sephiroth was gone he passed out.

"Cloud! Cloud!" Tifa shook him a bit. She was very worried about him. We all were, but now Sephiroth had the materia.

**Author:** Song is: Radical Dreamers-The Jewel that can't be stolen- From Chrono Cross. It's the ending song. So pretty. There is a purpose to the song and you'll see that later on.

Honestly I can hardly believe this story is this long and still going. I should thank everyone who reads and reviews my story. ^_^ Thanks! When I'm finished I will probably go through and try to fix all of the typos and/or continuity errors. I'm sure there are a few.

Anyway…it's getting closer to that point in the game. I've already decided what will happen, but have yet to write it out. I've started writing a special chapter. Not gonna tell you what it's about tho. I just gotta figure out where it fits into the story.


	81. The Northern Continent

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

Ch. 81 The Northern Continent

After losing the black materia Cloud passed out and we took him back to Gongaga. I knew what was coming next. Aeris was going to leave us and head north on her own. She said nothing to anyone when we left the temple. She was deep in thought and she was worried. I tried talking to her, but she was trying to protect us.

"I know what you're thinking of doing." I told her.

"I have to go. If I don't go now it will be too late. Please take care of Cloud." She said hugging me before leaving. Everyone else was so preoccupied they did not even notice until morning. I got little sleep. I was worried about her. Cloud woke up and told us about his dream. That is when they noticed she was gone.

"Did you notice anything?" Cloud asked me.

"She was very quiet. Everyone was worried about you. She was too." I told him. I could see that he felt guilty about what happened. He remembered giving Sephiroth the black materia. Aeris going ahead on her own worried him. He knew that she was in danger and he wanted to go and help her.

"We need to find her. She said she was going to stop Sephiroth alone." Cloud said. "She said she was heading to the City of the Ancients in the north." He said looking very worried about her.

"Then let's go. There's no time to waste." I said leaving. I was anxious about what was going to happen. _Can I stop him from killing her? I just don't know._

We got on the Tiny Bronco and left heading north. The only place we could make land was near Bone Village. It was small and there was only one thing we really needed to do here. Find the Lunar Harp. It was simple enough and we entered the sleeping forest. It was the only obstacle before reaching the City of the Ancients. As soon as we entered Cloud paused for a moment. He recognized it from his dream. We moved on and had almost made it to the City of the Ancients when _he_ showed up again.

"Enshii." I said remembering him right away. Everyone took out their weapons getting ready to fight. I could see that none of them wanted to waste too much time. _Even if we do take our time I know he will wait for us._ I thought to myself.

Suddenly I noticed there was a huge difference in Enshii. Something had changed about him very dramatically. He felt stronger and his whole attitude about the situation had changed as well. He seemed much more brazen than the last time. Then he had seemed almost reserved.

"This encounter will be different now that I am myself again. Scythe has granted me my wish to regain my former self. This means that now I can do whatever I want so long as I don't ruin his plans for you." Enshii said smiling strangely. The look in his eyes told me he wanted to kill us and that he would enjoy doing so. I also noticed the difference in the puppets. The three we had fought before were the same, but the other ones he brought out felt different than I remembered from my brief encounter with them in the Abyss. All were repaired now. "I have leveled the playing field. You will find all six of us hard to combat now that there is no holding back. Please, do not disappoint me." He said before attacking.

They surrounded us. Everyone stayed close so that none of them could simply jump in the middle of us and attack. I noticed that everyone was defending me. Enshii was trying to make his way to me and I understood why. He wanted to get me out of the way so he could come back and kill them freely. Obviously we were having none of that.

I also noticed something else. We were being watched by someone. I guessed that Sephiroth was watching this fight with much curiosity. Especially, since Jenova had an invested interest in how things turned out. However, I noticed that he seemed to have somewhat mixed feelings about what Enshii was trying to do. I supposed he needed them to live so he could continue to control them.

Now that there were more of them it was harder to fight, but there were a lot of us too. Vincent and Yuffie were trying to distract a few of them and lure them away from the others. Enshii was too preoccupied with getting to me to do much about that. Barret, Tifa and Cid stayed close to me. Barret and I were giving cloud some cover while Tifa and Cid protected our backs. Nanaki was also close by trying to help Cait Sith fend off one of them. It was like this for a long time. Cloud was fighting Enshii with us giving him support. However, unlike us they weren't getting tired.

"They're trying to tire us out. The puppets don't fatigue. We need to do more." I told them. "Cover me. I'm going to try something." I told them. They all surrounded me. I needed to concentrate. I looked around for the best one to get rid of. The strongest puppet was the only girl and she was the smartest one. She was also acting as their leader. _Maybe if I take her out they'll be easier to stop. Not sure if that will work though. All I can do is try. _I thought to myself.

I brought out my shadow and she already knew what I wanted her to do, but she seemed to be trying to tell me something. Though she has no voice so talking to me is quite hard for her. She pointed down at the others shadows. "You want me to use them too?" She nodded smiling widely. "That might be hard…." She just shook her head. _Maybe I should try. But I've never done that before. Will I even be able to control them?_ She didn't look worried about it at all. I guess maybe they would like to help too.

I focused on Tifa's shadow. I was hoping it would be the easiest to do since I've never tried to control a shadow besides my own. (Mine was kind of a pain though.) Her shadow popped up without hardly any effort and stood close to mine. She smiled the same strange smile that mine had. They briefly glanced at each other and then left heading towards the girl puppet. Vincent and Yuffie were fighting her and another one and they were having a hard time with them. Having two shadows helping seemed to make things easier for them.

They were only fighting her so Vincent and Yuffie concentrated on the other one. Without her helping they were able to do quite a bit of damage to it. The shadows started working together and managed to stop her in her tracks. She stood there unable to move while my shadow stalked up to her. However, there was no heart for her to simply kill it. They were souls trapped in puppets. _How do you destroy them and set the soul free? There should be a way._

I had been focusing on them that I didn't notice Cloud was hurt and Enshii was coming toward us. Tifa turned around and smacked me to get my attention. _Could've done without that, Tifa._ "What now?" Her expression quickly changed to surprise. "Behind you!" I turned and found the girl puppet too close. Our shadows had retreated to the ground and mine popped up just in time to stop her. I was relieved by how quickly she acted, but I do wonder about her sometimes.

She struggled as hard as she could trying to break free, but she couldn't seem to get past both of them. That was something I had not noticed at first. Tifa's shadow was barely coming up from the ground grabbing hold of her legs. She seemed to be pulling her into their realm, but she was struggling to break free so they just managed to hold her there. My shadow briefly looked at me as if to tell me now was my chance to get her.

I nodded and cut of an arm disarming her so if she did manage to get away she couldn't simply fight back right away. She gave me what I assumed was an angry look, but could do nothing. My shadow smiled even wider at her. "Lilia, hurry up! He's coming." Everyone had come back to regroup and help Cloud. Tifa was getting worried about the situation.

Suddenly my shadow moved around behind her so I could have a better shot at her. I wasn't going to waste time shooting her and putting holes in her. I just slashed her down the torso going all the way through her body. They let go of her and the puppet body just fell to the ground. The eyes looked nearly dead. She seemed almost pathetic lying there. Enshii was enraged.

"Reiza! Y-you!" He shouted angrily. He was calling the puppets to him to regroup.

I stared at the dead puppet. I could just see a hint of its soul. A dim light surrounded it like someone was there. I could not stop staring at her. _It's her soul. Reiza…._ I just stared at it feeling like it was important. She was there and she stood up to look at me. She seemed grateful that I had saved her from that prison. Her spirit could move on now. She nodded and then glanced over at Enshii showing only a hint of anger. I noticed that he could see her. He noticed the look she gave him before disappearing. It angered him even more.

"T-that…won't…happen…again!" Enshii said seething with anger. He waved a hand and the puppets shot off in different directions. "Reiza may be gone now, but I can take a trick or two from her. She was an expert strategist. The only women who has ever beaten me as I am." Enshii said. He backed away disappearing in the white mist. The puppets were silent.

"They're hiding. He's trying to surprise us. Be on your toes!" I told them as I looked around for them. _This would be easier if I could actually sense them._

We started hearing noises all around us. One of the puppets flew out of a tree defending itself. _What's going on?_ Shortly after Sephiroth appeared slicing him in half with little effort. Enshii came soon after so angry he could hardly control himself.

"You're weak, using these toys to fight for you. Hah." Sephiroth said to him. He faced away from all of us.

"Why did you even interfere? This has nothing to do with you!" Enshii shouted in frustration. "You have no idea what this is about, fool."

"Fool. You are a fool. Soon you'll be a dead fool." He said turning around preparing to fight. "I grew tired of watching. I won't let you take my prey either." He said smiling.

Enshii growled and charged at him. It was kind of pathetic to watch. Sephiroth dodged him so easily he started screaming at him. Sephiroth was laughing at him. The difference between them was astonishing. Enshii could see it, but he was so angry that things had gone so badly he no longer cared. Finally he seemed to change his tactics.

"Well, I see that I can't beat you with strength. No matter there is still something else I can try." He said smiling. "Glaed, now!"

Everyone looked around for her, but saw nothing. Suddenly, I felt someone grab my arm pulling me. I pulled back and dug my heels in the ground growling at her. "Hmph." Sephiroth said appearing beside me. He merely smacked her arm away like he had done before at the party. For a moment he seemed to remember it too, but it vanished in an instant.

"Gah! Damn you!" She growled leaving us. Enshii was on the ground. Sephiroth had injured him, but the adrenaline rush had made him ignore it. Now he could no longer do that. I was more focused on Sephiroth.

"Why would you do that?" He said nothing for a moment.

"I don't know." He said turning back towards Enshii.

"You'll die soon. How does it feel?"

"Death is nothing. He will make you all suffer." Enshii said smiling. He became silent waiting for Scythe to lift the spell that kept him alive. No one moved for a moment simply watching. In a way we were just making sure that it was over. Sephiroth disappeared without a word. Everyone thought it was a bit odd that he intervened like that, but it was over and that was all that mattered. Now we could go into the city and find Aeris.

**Author:** Sorry for taking forever. I have a job now! Its freelance, but it's still like a full time job, plus getting pretty good pay and something I can add to my resume. Though that'll be fun to redesign….

Anyway, you know what's next. May be a little bit of a wait for the next chapter. Haven't finished it yet.


	82. The City of the Ancients

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

Ch. 82 The City of the Ancients

The city was very quiet and surreal. I had been here before, but had little opportunity at the time to truly appreciate it. We looked around finding only a few useful items. As before this city was nearly barren of everything. We rested in one of the houses and it was Cloud that woke us in the middle of the night.

"I heard her voice. She's here somewhere." He said frantically. No one said anything. We just followed him into the center of the city hoping to find her. There was only one place to go. A large shell building with a glowing staircase leading to a city below. On the way down we could see her. It only made us move faster, but I stopped looking back. I had to let them go on. Sephiroth was already here.

"I have to try at least to get through to him." I whispered as I headed back up. He was outside somewhere waiting. He was planning on forcing Cloud to do it so he would not have to do it himself. _Or is that Jenova not wanting to do it?_ I wondered if that were true. Sephiroth loved fighting and even killing at times. He was never one to let others do it for him. I went to the pool of water and looked at it clutching my necklace. "Sephiroth, no…Jenova! I know you're here." I received no answer.

I took off the necklace and opened the locket looking at the images. "I know what you're doing, but you should already know that." I said to her. "You're already too late. Killing her won't help you." This seemed to get a response. I saw his reflection in the pool standing in a tree behind me. I turned to look at him and got a big surprise.

He was now in front of me the masamune going right through me. I grabbed the blade and dropped the locket on the ground. The look in his eyes was a mixture of delight and sadness. He seemed conflicted about what he had just done, but Jenova was very pleased.

"I should have killed you a long time ago." She said in his voice. "And after I kill you _that_ woman can join you." He said smiling. For a split second he looked different like he regretted his actions. He started to remove his sword. I held it there for a moment.

"I won't die from this…and…if you stay here…." I started to say. He put a hand on my shoulder and pulled harder on the sword than I could cutting my hands in the process. He laughed.

"Hn. Are you sure?"

"Sephiroth." I coughed and stumbled backward a few steps. "This isn't you. I know it. You know me." I stumbled again. "I see it in your eyes. You remember me." I looked down trying to find the locket. I was losing a lot of blood and my vision was failing. In an attempt to protect me my body was trying to make me sleep. It had already numbed the pain. I clutched my stomach and stumbled for the last time. "Ugh." I hit the ground, but there was also water around me. I was half in the pool of water. Before passing out I saw him kneel down for a moment._ Did he see it? _**Line**

Cloud and the others were oblivious to the fact that Lilia was not with them. All of them were focused on Aeris. She was sitting with her hands together praying. Only Cloud and Tifa approached her. They looked at her for a moment just watching. Neither of them wanted to disturb her. She did not really seem to notice them.

"At least she's ok." Tifa said breaking the silence. Cloud nodded. He kneeled down in front of her for a moment and then stood up drawing his sword. "Cloud? What are you doing?" He raised the sword over his head. "Cloud!" Tifa saw him struggling and so she encouraged him to fight. She knew that it was not him doing this. He would never do something like that.

"N-no…I won't…do it. You…can't…make…me!" He forced out struggling not to bring the sword down on his friend…his love. Suddenly he could no longer hold the sword up and swung it down hitting the floor just beside her. "See." He raised the sword again. "NO!" He tried to back away, but could not. Sephiroth's control over him became more intense and he started swinging over and over, but none of them managed to land a blow on Aeris as she prayed. She never once opened her eyes. Finally he seemed to let go and Cloud kneeled down panting from the effort.

"Cloud? Are you ok?" Tifa asked placing a hand on his shoulder. He just nodded shaking slightly.

"I will never kill someone for him!" Cloud stated suddenly in anger.

"I was a little worried there, but I knew you could do it." Tifa said smiling. Cloud smiled back and stood up putting away his sword. He suddenly felt something and looked up. Before he could react Sephiroth had stabbed Aeris killing her almost instantly. He looked up and smiled. "You BASTARD!" Cloud said in a rage.

"What will you do little puppet?" Sephiroth replied smiling. "Oh…and perhaps you should see to your other friend above. She's stronger than this one, but…." He said shaking his head.

"What?" Tifa said looking down at their friends. She counted them and realized that Lilia was not with them. "Lilia?" She looked back at Sephiroth. "What did you do?" He said nothing, but smiled and motioned towards Aeris. Cloud was now armed and angry.

"Do you care about nothing? What about my feelings?" Cloud said. Sephiroth said nothing in response, but laughed slightly at his reaction. "No more. I will never forgive you!" He lunged at Sephiroth, but he leaped up towards the exit and threw down yet another piece of Jenova for them to fight. Cloud stared at it for a moment shaking from his anger. Then it suddenly transformed into a monstrous form and attacked. Cloud took out all of his hate on it trying to understand why she had to die.

* * *

After leaving them Sephiroth stood outside for a moment and realized he was holding something in his hand. _What's this?_ He thought. He honestly did not remember picking it up. Jenova noticed it too and felt a twinge of anger for not noticing it sooner. Both of them looked at it together, but Jenova realized what it was first. She immediately tried convincing him to drop it and leave, but he would not. He was becoming very curious about the woman who tried so hard. He did not understand why she did this.

He looked at the locket for a moment and remembered nothing. It alone did not bring him any memories that this girl claimed he should have. He glanced over at her. She had passed out from the wound that he had inflicted. This image of her seemed to stir something within him. He felt regret for hurting her and he did not understand why. She was his enemy. It also made him feel sad. He laughed at himself for a moment for feeling anything towards her.

He opened the locket and looked at the images. Jenova growled in anger. She had wanted to avoid this. Him seeing anything of them together would make him wonder. And he was not one to give up on something like that. _What is this, mother? What am I looking at?_ He questioned her.

_Nothing. She's trying to deceive you._

"These pictures…they're not new or altered." He said looking at them more closely. He was fixated on the one of them together. For a moment he could see it in his mind. _Is this real?_ _Is this the reason I helped her before? _He looked over at Lilia wondering. He felt a strange twinge in his heart. "What is this feeling?" He heard movement behind him and realized that Cloud and his friends must have defeated his monster. He had spent more time there then he had intended. He left still clutching onto the necklace.

* * *

I woke up later in a bed. Moving hurt a lot. Cloud was sitting next to the bed staring into the distance. I already knew what had happened. I said nothing at first. I was thinking about it too. _Will I be able to see her? Aeris, I'm so sorry._

"You're awake." Cloud said finally noticing.

"Yeah." I said weakly. "What happened?" He just shook his head and covered his face.

"I thought…you were going to die too." He said through his hands. "Sephiroth, he…." He stopped his whole body shaking almost in tears. "Aeris is dead." He said finally. "Sephiroth killed her."

"Aeris…." I whispered turning away. "I'm sorry." I felt the need to cry a little. Cloud seemed to understand and left me alone for a while and no one else came in. They were all downstairs talking about what to do next. Cloud was worried about me, but he wanted to go after Sephiroth. He was now more determined than ever.

I managed to get up and made my way over to the ladder, but I was a little weary of trying to get down. "Um…hello! Someone wanna help me down?"

"Lilia? You should be in bed!" Tifa said scolding me. Vincent helped me down. Everyone looked so sad and worried. "When we found you…we thought he might have killed you too." She told me.

"You did have us worried." Cid chimed in. Everyone nodded. Even Vincent had a hint of worry.

"You did kind of look dead." Yuffie said only wanting to add her voice.

"Why were you up there anyway?" Tifa asked.

"I felt something and thought I would take a look around. He was there watching us." I told them. "He…." I paused remembering. "I…wish I could have stopped him. Maybe…she'd still be here."

"We buried her there in the water. We'll come back after it's over to see her." Cloud said solemnly. "We need to go after him."

"Hmph." I clenched my fists thinking about Jenova. I could not stand the fact that she was actually winning. "That's not him." I told them. "Only his mind is there." They all looked at me strangely. To be honest I was growing tired of hiding it from them.

"What are you saying?" Cloud said curiously. There was also a hint of disbelief in his voice.

"I'm saying that we have yet to see Sephiroth. _That_ is merely a doll. She's…just using him." I said a bit solemnly.

"She?" Tifa asked. "Who?"

"Jenova."

"Jenova?" They repeated. I just nodded.

"She came from another world…like me. She killed the Ancients. They fought back and managed to seal her away. But then Shinra found her and made a mistake in thinking she was an Ancient." I told them.

"They decided to use her in their experiments. That is how Sephiroth was born." Vincent said suddenly. Everyone gave him a strange look. "They infused him with Jenova cells before birth."

"I had them too, but now I can only hear her when _he's _around. She's…afraid of me…." I said laughing slightly.

"Why would she be afraid of you?" Cloud said

"Because…." I sighed. "There's something I haven't told you." All of them looked at me intently wondering what it was.

"It's because…Sephiroth and I…are married."

"What!" They said in unison. The only one who did not seem surprised was Vincent and Cait Sith. I knew saying that in front of him meant that Shinra would know all the details, but I had no choice. It was time to speak up.

"I'm sure you can understand why I wouldn't bring this up right away." I said. Cloud looked angry and everyone else was mostly curious.

"So…that's what you've been hiding." Cloud said looking away. "Those people…they knew didn't they?"

"They must have. I think it's the reason they waited for so long. I think they knew he could beat them and he was almost always around."

"He's our enemy, Lilia. What am I supposed to think…after what he's done?" Cloud said shaking his head. He was very conflicted and his heart was shattered from losing Aeris. "How can I trust you now?"

"He was different back then. Jenova, must have promised him something otherwise he wouldn't even listen to her. Also, he lost a lot. He had few friends and all of them died or betrayed him. Then I disappear…it must have been hard for him."

"That doesn't change anything!" He shouted back.

"You…don't understand at all." I said with tears in my eyes. This was hard for me. They were my friends and I knew this was hurting Cloud most of all. Everyone else seemed willing to forgive me or did not really care about my past. "Aeris knew everything! She knew what he was like then too! She was the one I told everything! Things I've never even told him!" I said angrily. His reaction was only making me upset. I knew he would react like this, but it was still hard to control myself.

"Then why didn't she ever say anything?" Cloud said now finding me hard to believe.

"I asked her not to. If anyone was going to tell you…at least it would be from me." I told him. "She did that because she was my friend and she knew how hard it was for me. Seeing him like this is difficult. I know the kind of person he really is. This is very unlike him. I know he's done terrible things…and if he's not stopped everyone here will die, but there are also other things to consider."

"Like what?" Cloud spat out.

"Like what happens after. This world will perish and it won't be the only one. Sephiroth might be the only one who can fight _him._ Scythe is unbelievably powerful. He is also a sorcerer. Meaning that with his power he could stop all of us in a fight." I told him. "And there are alternatives. You really don't know the whole story. Even I don't. I know that I want to at least try to stop him without killing him. If I can't then I know there will be no choice, but to. However, you'll be doing that on your own. You don't need me for that."

"So you won't fight him at all?" Tifa asked. I shook my head.

"Maybe I can get through to him. I just haven't found what I need to make him remember. It's all there I know it. Somehow I need to bring it out. If I can do that then all of this will stop before more people have to get hurt."

"What if it's too late? One is more than enough." Cloud said. "I can't forgive him."

"No one is asking you to. I'm not asking that you forgive him. I just want a chance to try so that maybe the real problem can get taken care of. You don't know what happens at the end of all this, but I do! It's not a happy ending and a lot of people will die." I said standing up. "I don't know if helping him will end all of the suffering that will come after this is over or not, but I want to try." I said with conviction.

Cloud looked at the ground for a few minutes unable to say anything. No one spoke. No one knew what to say or do in this situation. Many of them stayed quiet not wanting to add more to the argument. Finally he looked up at me.

"I too want to end the suffering. I don't agree with you, but you have done a lot for us all. We are still friends, but I can't simply ignore this…and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm angry, but a lot has happened. I've lost a lot too."

"I know that. You know that if you need me I'm here to help, but I still love him. I just…can't make myself fight him." Then I realized that I was still hurt and all of that moving around from arguing with him had not helped. I sat down and groaned at the pain.

"You should be careful." Tifa said.

"So, what now?" I asked them.

"You need to heal first." Tifa replied.

"You heal pretty fast so after that we'll head up the mountain. Sephiroth is waiting in the crater. We really don't know what will happen up there. You may not get the chance to help him." Cloud said holding in his anger.

"I'm sorry, Cloud. I would've done more to save her, but I couldn't…." I said still crying. He was actually wondering if those tears were real or not. That made me a little angry to know, but I held my tongue. We had said enough today. _Aeris, I wish there had been a way to help you._

It took a day and a half for me to heal enough for travel. Before we left I stood there at the pool for what felt like an eternity just staring into it. _We'll come back here when it's over. Hopefully everyone can be happy with the way this ends. Aeris, I'm sorry. I can't say that enough._ That said I left to rejoin the others.

_Please don't say that. I don't need it._

**Author:** Now they know the truth. Finally it comes out. I honestly was not sure where in the story this was going to happen, but this seemed like the right place for it. Next chapter is going to be a bonus chapter. Still working on that one so it might be a while. Have it mostly written out just need to do a lot of fine tuning to it before its ready. Also, going to be very busy with work. Just got a huge project in and I'm trying to find a way I can work on it at home for more hours.


	83. Special Chapter: The Other Side

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

Special Chapter: The Other Side

It was dark very suddenly. For a moment I remembered The Abyss. How it had been so dark all of the sudden with only a hint of light at the center. This was different. This place had a light much like twilight, but much darker. Suddenly I realized where I was. _This place…the shadow realm. _I thought. The Shadow Realm. That is what I have been calling this place. The place where our shadows roam like copies.

I looked around trying to find my own shadow. She should be here somewhere nearby. The world shifted and moved ever so slightly. Everything was covered in darkness. She was there standing in a group of others.

"There you are."

The ones with her looked like my friends. I had been looking for them, but somehow I had become trapped in this place. I looked at them. They seemed to be watching for something.

* * *

Cloud and everyone looked around finding Lilia gone after the fight. Some of them voiced their concerns thinking that those people had finally gotten her, but somehow felt it was something else. They searched the area and found nothing.

"We can't sit here and wait for her." Cloud said sighing. Part of him wanted to leave her behind, but he knew that the others did not feel the same.

"What could have happened to her? She wouldn't just leave." Tifa said concerned.

"I don't smell her scent." Red told them.

"She was here last." Vincent said pointing towards a large rock formation.

"I remember seeing her there too, but what happened?" Tifa said staring at it. None of them were too keen on the idea of waiting for her. It was cold and getting colder. They needed to find somewhere warm to be or they would all freeze to death.

* * *

I looked at them all and noticed something odd. Something was off about them. I was not entirely sure what though. My shadow looked at me, but did not move. None of them did. They were just standing there staring at something.

"What's going on?" I asked her. I was not sure how she would be able to respond. She pointed behind me and I slowly turned around. "What the…."

* * *

Lilia appeared out of nowhere screaming and fending off something invisible. Flecks of dark mist came from her arm revealing a large wound. She flailed about and Cloud went to calm her. "Lilia! Stop!" She froze hearing him.

"C-cloud…." She said looking extremely relieved. Cloud saw how she held her arm. It looked bad. He was not really sure what to do.

"What happened?"

* * *

"So you have no idea what it was?" Cloud asked again. We had made it to a small town that looked like it had been forgotten. It was not on the map we had gotten at Icicle Inn and no one had ever heard of it.

Town of Kōri. The sign was barely visible from the snow. It was covered in a layer of snow and ice almost hidden from view. The town looked abandoned from afar, but once at the gate we realized it was inhabited. The town was much like the sign. The people had done little to make it look habitable. It seemed like they wanted to disappear.

"No…but they were all afraid of it. They were huddled together." I said shaking a little bit. Whatever it had been it had bit up my arm. I sat there staring at the wounds. Tifa was trying to heal them, but it was slow going. _I was lucky._

"There's something weird about this place. I've never heard of a town here, but not many people travel in this area." Tifa said shaking her head.

"I know what you mean." Cloud said. "This town has a very ominous feeling."

Everyone looked on edge. There were few people living here and it looked like they were afraid of everything. They all moved quickly. No one just walked around. They were always looking behind them. None of them were welcoming. They had in fact told us all to leave as soon as possible. We were not sure why, but with my arm hurt it would be hard to move on. For some reason it was refusing to heal. I noticed that they looked at my wounds with a hint of fear. They knew what had attacked me.

"The townspeople seem frightened of something, but they aren't asking for help. It's as if they have given up." Vincent commented.

"I've never seen anything like it. After Wutai lost the war…everyone hung their head in shame, but this…this is different. We were afraid that we would all disappear, but I think they're waiting for it." Yuffie said solemnly. Everyone was silent after that. We were all thinking about what to do and everyone was worried about the town. Something was going on. I was beginning to wonder if it were connected to what I saw.

"AAAAAAAAaaaaah!"

We all heard the scream. Everyone went to the window. There were a few people outside and instantly they cleared the streets. All lights went on at the same time as if that would help them. When no one came out to investigate we assumed that this is not the first time this has happened. However, we were all curious and decided to go and see for ourselves.

What we found made us sick. "How can they just let this happen?" I said shaking with anger. No one said anything they just stared at the body. Yuffie was throwing up. Most of it was eaten to the bone. It had sounded like a woman, but we could hardly tell the difference. What was left was a little bit of flesh still attached to the bones.

"There is almost no blood." Vincent said. "It was very quick."

"You shouldn't get involved." Someone said suddenly. It actually made us jump. We turned around. It was a man who looked like he might be in charge. "You should leave or face the same fate as those who live here."

"So you are resigned to your fate to die." Vincent stated. The man nodded.

"It is our curse. We did what we could to let the outside world forget about us. Sometimes people wander into our village, but none stay long. You too should leave, before you are trapped here in our curse." He said looking serious and sad.

"I've seen this thing that attacks you. I don't think it will just let us leave." I told him. The look he gave me was one of surprise and horror.

"You've seen it?" He said taking a step back. "You are lucky to be alive. No one has ever seen that monster and lived."

"It was before we got here. We were attacked by some monsters." I told him. He stood there looking thoughtful for a moment, but was interrupted by Yuffie.

"Aren't we forgetting something important here? There's a dead body that needs to be taken care of. We can talk later!" She said looking irritated.

"You're right. Sorry. What do you do with the bodies?" I said.

"We have a graveyard over there." He said pointing. "I'll have it taken care of. I'm the Mayor. Come to my house and we can finish this discussion." He said leaving.

"You sure that you want to get involved?" Cloud asked.

"I don't think we are going to have a choice." I told him following the mayor.

"My name is Aaron Delhart. It's been years since I've entertained guests like this so please forgive me."

"We don't care about that. This thing is a problem and don't you want this place to be a town again?" I said.

"Of course, but this is not something we can fight. It's like a ghost. No one here can even tell you what it looks like. How can you fight something you can't find?" Aaron said.

"I understand that. It moves fast like they do." I said thinking.

"They? Who?" He said confused.

"Sir…." Someone who looked like a butler came in shaking. He sounded frightened.

"Albert…I'm sorry." Aaron said looking at him. He was looking at his shadow.

"Explain this." I said forcefully.

"You are new here so you don't know." Albert said. "We know when we are next. It makes it fairly obvious. Look at my shadow." He said pointing at it. He had two shadows. It is not something you would notice at first. "It took years for us to notice it."

"I see. It's attached to you so it can get to you whenever it wants. It must have pulled me in, but it couldn't handle me." I said thoughtfully. _It attacks like they do. Is it one of them or does it live there?_

"It attacked you?" He said disbelieving. "And you lived?" I nodded showing them my arm. "No one ever has. Do you think you can stop it?" He asked almost pleading.

"Your wound looks pretty severe. Are you sure it won't come after you as well?" Aaron said.

"I don't know." I said shaking my head. _They were afraid. If it can scare them…then how am I supposed to fight it? And what if it does come after me? No one else can help me except them._

"We need to rest." Cloud said. "How long do you think it will wait to attack you?" He said to Albert.

"Tomorrow night. Then we probably won't see it for a while. That's why there are still people left here. Soon this town will be gone." He said sadly hanging his head.

"How often does it eat?" He said with a frown. He was still seeing the dead woman like everyone else.

"Four times a year. It takes about three or four people each time." He replied.

"I see." We left and went back to the inn. It had been a long night. We woke early and I decided to go look for it on my own. I was just starting to get use to going in and out of their realm. I was gaining more control over it, but I could not take anyone with me. I felt that it was a little too dangerous to attempt just yet unless I had to. The wound on my arm was still there and stung quite a bit. They told me to be careful. I was hoping that all of the shadows would be willing to help me. _Somehow I need to get them to fight too. Can it even hurt them? Can we?  
_

I went in and told them I'll try not to stay too long. Things could get bad very quickly. I knew where to look. Albert was nearby as I had asked. All of them were with him just in case something happened, but I knew that here they could do little for me. All of our shadows were where they were supposed to be. All of them stared at Albert's shadow. There was another one with it almost wrapped around him. Another version of him that could hardly hold the shape. Everyone else kept their distance. Mine stood next to me just watching.

No one moved for a long time. It did not seem threatened by me. Or was it preoccupied? "Hey!" I shouted at it. I just wanted to see if it would react. It flinched at the sound of my voice and only its eyes moved. It looked right at me and seemed to remember me. It smiled showing its teeth. The way he looked was different from mine. _It must live here, but why does it scare them?_ The look it gave me seemed to unnerve the others. My shadow grabbed my arm tightly. She shook her head and seemed to be telling me to leave. It laughed inaudibly at her reaction. It then looked at my arm where it had bitten me. "Why are you so afraid of him?" I said to her. She gave me a strange look. "I guess that's hard to explain." She just looked at the ground and then started pushing me away.

It did make me think of another question. Does it stay here? Or can it move freely? _Surely they would not let something like this roam the planet._ I immediately went looking for the mayor. "Aaron, tell me. Is there anything that keeps it from leaving this town?"

"Yes. The previous mayor found a way to seal it inside the village. The only problem is that we cannot leave. Someone who lived nearby performed the magic, however he has recently died. Soon it will be free." He said solemnly. If we all die then the seal fade. That is why it feeds on us. Recently there have been more attacks. It must know that if we all die it will be free."

"I see. But I was attacked outside of town." I informed him.

"The seal has weakened. He cannot leave, but now he can reach a little outside of the barrier. We have been working to improve the seal, but we aren't holding out much hope."

"You should work on that. We'll be needing it. We don't have much time before Albert is taken. Perhaps you can make a seal around him? It can move between the realm of shadow and light. Here it might be weaker." I said mostly thinking out loud. It sounded good to me, but could it be done?

"I'm not sure I quite follow."

"It is a creature that lives in the shadow realm. It's a place opposing our realm. Think of it as another world. It moves between the two. When it feeds it must manifest itself here in order to catch its prey. If we trap it here and make it unable to escape then we stand a much better chance of fighting it." _I may need to enlist their help too._

"I think I get it, but I don't know if we can do that. The magic used to make the seal is old and forgotten. No one really knows how it works. All we have is a small book with some old writings, but none of us have the ability to read it. The only person that did is now dead." He said sounding defeated.

"May we see this book?"

He seemed hesitant to do so. It was something they protected because of what it held inside. "Albert, please go home." He said before leaving the room. He nodded with a hint of sadness and fear.

"Afraid that if he is here then it will find it?" I asked.

"None of us can use the book, but we should protect it so that if by chance anyone who can we'll have some tool to fight this thing."

"Who was the owner?"

"A strange old man living near here. Recently a man came to town claiming to have been attacked by the monster. So we sent someone seeking his aid, but found that he had died." He paused for a moment. "They brought back the book and a note, but none of us can read them."

"Did he speak that language too?" Aaron Nodded. Then he made us wait for him. He did not want us to see where the book was. "We feared that it might try to do something thinking that we could use this book to stop it somehow." Then he brought it out along with the note and everything. After just glancing at it I knew that I had no idea what it said and no one else did either. "Well?"

"No idea…there must be something. Obviously he wanted to tell you something or perhaps this message is for someone else." I said mostly thinking.

"Perhaps not. It is written in the language of the ancients. Not many, if any, in the world can read this writing anymore."

_Aeris, I doubt that she could either. She grew up away from that. Maybe she could get something from it. _I sighed. _I wish you were here._

I gave him back the book and note and then paused. Looking down I noticed something off. My shadow was grinning at me. "What the-." It reached up and grabbed me by the neck. Everyone was shocked. Aaron ran from the room afraid of what might happen next. I pulled back not really wanting to get dragged into their realm. _What's going on in there? Help me out a little bit!_ I was thinking to my shadow. I could hardly move or speak for that matter. Suddenly my neck started to burn. I was trying to pull away, but I couldn't and no one else was sure what to do. Aaron was hiding.

_Let go._

I faintly heard the voice. Obviously he heard it. Instantly it released me and was gone. _That voice? Who is it?_ I thought coughing. I looked at them and saw the confusion. _They didn't hear it._

"Lilia, are you ok?" They were worried. Now there were marks on my neck. I just nodded. I was hurting and none of them moved. Albert suddenly ran in shouting at us.

"It's gone!" He exclaimed. He then paused when he saw me sitting on the ground holding my throat. "It left me and attacked you didn't it?" He said sadly. I nodded. "We have to do something about it. Once the seal is gone it will just go out into the world and kill people." He looked around and noticed that Aaron was missing. "Where is the mayor?"

"He turned tail and ran." Yuffie said smirking. Aaron suddenly appeared giving her an angry look.

"I had to protect the book. It may hold the key to stopping this creature. I hate having to bury old friends! It's even harder to bury children." He said angrily. That shut her up. She looked away knowing exactly what that was like. "We have to do something. Please…." He said shaking. "Please help us."

"I'm not sure what we can do." Cloud said. I knew that he was thinking about Sephiroth. He wanted to follow him. Staying here meant it would be that much longer til we get to him and stop him. "We'll do what we can." He said finally. Aaron was relieved.

"Make sure that everyone stays inside. I think it will come after me now. You should be safe now." I told them.

"You're more dangerous prey. It has to get rid of you now. If not even after this village is gone it would still have to deal with us." Vincent said. They were willing to help and that made me happy. No one was willing to leave and come back to find this village destroyed.

He gathered everyone and explained the situation. Many of them were afraid that something bad would happen, but they were ready for it to end. All they had to do was stay inside no matter what. That was something they were all use to. Every light went on. All windows and doors were shut and locked with the drapes closed. Even though they could not see outside all of them attentively looked at the windows wondering what was happening. Would they finally be free of this monster?

We waited for what felt like eternity. Everyone was anxious. We were not sure when it would strike. Everyone knew that we might not have this chance again. No one spoke. It was completely silent. A very eerie night.

Finally it seemed to make a move. It was almost midnight and near the same time it had killed the woman the night before. The moon was full lighting up the town all covered in snow. Everyone was watching and waiting for something to happen. I suddenly noticed that it was growing darker. The shadows were moving towards us. _Do you intend to eat all of us?_

Everyone was surprised when the moon disappeared. "What happened? I can't see anything." Cloud said. "Lilia?"

"I'm not sure." I said frantically looking around. We were all blind at that moment and I was worried that it would grab someone and no one would see it. I was feeling out everything. I threw out my senses and watched everyone with my mind. I suddenly realized what was going on. _It's all around us. Something else is here too._ I felt hands on me. They were not attacking me, but more or less directing me. I heard the others gasping, but they too were being led by something. _We're in their world._

I could faintly see them. Shadows guiding all of us away only their eyes truly gave them away. However, I could still see the fear in them. They were worried that it would come after all of us.

"Where are we? Are they what I think they are?" Cloud asked me.

"He pulled us into their realm. These are our shadows." They all suddenly shivered all looking back to where he was. "They're afraid of it. I'm not sure why though." All of them covered their ears. All of us watched not really sure what was going on. I turned around to see a large creature looming nearby. Its mouth was wide open as if it were roaring at us. "They can hear it."

"Are we ready?" Cloud said. It looked like he would attack soon. None of us were sure what to do, but I made sure to tell everyone not to touch it directly. Everyone nodded.

He watched us for a moment smiling eerily. He showed no fear of us. Our shadows were ready to fight as well now that we were here. I could see that they feared fighting him, but they wanted to protect us. Now that our numbers have doubled I was hoping that this would make things easier. It remained unafraid. We got into position and attacked. The creature smiled and remained motionless. It hardly seemed to feel our attacks. "It's not working." Cloud said. "I'll try magic and see what that does."

"It's just absorbing the attacks." I said staring at it. _Will the magic get absorbed as well? Why doesn't it attack?_ Suddenly it occurred to me. "Cloud don't!" I tried to stop him, but it was too late. He unleashed an ice spell and the shards of ice went right into its body not even phasing it. The smile widened and it hunched its body in an attack position. Then it rose up with an inaudible cry unleashing its pent up energy along with the ice shards. We were all knocked back by it and somehow managed to avoid the ice.

"That didn't work quite how I expected." Cloud said catching his breath.

"No more magic on it. It'll just absorb it and send it back at us." I told them.

"So how do we fight it? There must be something. They don't seem to be doing much to it either." Cid said pointing at his shadow. It just looked at him and rolled its eyes.

"Even they are fearful of him. I've never really fought a shadow before. I'm not sure what we should do here, but I get the feeling we won't be able to leave here until he is gone."

His smile widened and it narrowed it eyes watching us. No one moved. This time we were going to let it come to us

"It's gone!" Yuffie shouted. It had suddenly vanished after running full speed at us. We gathered into a circle unsure of where it might appear. Again I tried to sense it, but it was hard to pinpoint. "Feels like he's everywhere." I said. No one responded, but they listened and watched all ready to attack or defend if need be. We were all on edge.

My shadow was watching something. I noticed the others doing the same. _Is that where he is? What do we do? How do we fight him? _At the same time my arm and neck started to hurt. The wounds pulsed and mist flowed out of it. "What is this?" I was on the ground clutching my arm and neck. My shadow looked very worried about me. Everyone gathered around me so he could not reach me.

"Are you ok?" Cloud said barely looking back.

"I'm fine." I said cringing. "I don't know what's going on." I was on the ground bent over in pain. I almost felt like screaming.

"Here it comes!" Cloud shouted. "Don't let it past you!" I saw them tense up, but the pain was just getting worse.

The mist was still coming from my arm and now it was thickening. _What is this? What did it do to me?_ This whole situation was both painful and frustrating.

_I can help you with the pain._ A soft lulling voice said. A few seconds later the pain was almost gone. I stared at my arm for a moment and then got up. I could not identify the voice, but I had heard it before.

"Lilia?" Everyone stared at me wondering if I was ok.

"I'm ok. We have to finish it." The monster looked at me almost disappointed that I was still standing. The wound had gotten larger as if it were eating me from the inside. It was unharmed. _There has to be something that can hurt this thing! What is it?_ I was staring at it wondering what could be done. Its attention seemed to shift for a moment. As if there were someone else around that concerned it. Our shadows were reacting to it as well. _What could that be?_

Its body began to lose shape. I looked at the others wondering if it was happening to them as well, but they were fine. _Is something or someone doing this to him?_ There was something inside the mass of darkness. A small little light. I was not really sure what it could be. Something told me that it was important. _What is that?_

_Not yet. It's too soon to use its power._

This voice was new. One I definitely had never heard before. Somehow I felt like it was actually coming from the creature, or perhaps that light. I could not be sure. The creature seemed to regain it composure and glared at us. The smile was gone from it now. It was done playing around and now meant to kill us.

It charged once again at us, but then stopped short looking away with an angry look on its face. It whirled around and leapt at something invisible. All of us were ready if we needed to fight, but none of us were really sure what was happening. _Is someone there?_

I suddenly realized that I was right. Someone was there. I could feel them now. They're aura was massive and intense. It started to make me feel sick. _Who is that? No, what is that?_ I could see an outline of a person, or what looked like one. The creature was almost afraid of it seemingly running away.

This person knocked the creature back and it landed hard on the ground. "What's happening?" Cloud asked bewildered. I just shook my head feeling the same way. Our shadows watched now calm and all looked almost reverently upon the scene. Once again the creature began to lose shape and the light was visible. A white mist came from it hardly visible to the eye.

As this happened the person or whatever it was began change. It took on the color of the white mist. This person turned his head to look at us and smiled. The aura got stronger and I fell to my knees. _What is this. This feels like…._

_I'm sorry, but you must die now. Return to the planet and be at peace._ I heard the voice too. It was the one I had heard earlier. When that light first appeared. _This was never yours and you should never have used it to enter into the light. _It said to the creature. It began to disintegrate in a cloud of black mist. I noticed mist also coming from my arm and neck. The others were a little worried about that, but I felt nothing from it. When it was gone I noticed he was walking towards us. The closer he got the worse I felt. "Who are you?" I was bleeding like I had in the Abyss. I wiped away the blood and nearly collapsed on the spot.

_We will meet again when the time is right. I have come a long way called here by that monster. His misuse of this materia disturbed me. Take it. You will know what to do when the time comes. Besides, it has traveled a long way to reach you._ He said.

_What's going on? Who are you? _I shouted in my head. He heard, but did not answer me. Suddenly the pain was gone.

* * *

"Lilia, can you hear me!" It sounded like Cloud. I was shaking…or was someone shaking me? "Lilia, wake up."

"Ugh…stop that!" I said opening my eyes. Snow was falling softly. I had almost forgotten about the snow. Everyone was shivering.

"We were worried. Thought you might have died on us." Cid said. Suddenly I felt a lot of heat.

"What's that?" I looked over and saw the townspeople burning the town. "What are they doing?

"Too many bad memories. They said they would try starting over somewhere else, but they want to forget." Cloud said. Somehow we were back in our realm. I guess either that person brought us back or our shadows did. At this point I really did not care which.

"Maybe that's a good thing." I said feeling a bit relieved that it was over. I looked down at my arm and noticed the wound was much better now. It was just a scar now that went up my arm. "So what happened?"

"You just blacked out all of the sudden after a cloud of mist came out of your arm and neck. We thought maybe it was trying to kill you." Cloud said. "But afterword it looked like it had healed a lot. The creature, whatever it was, is gone. That other person saved us. To be honest, I wasn't sure we could beat it. He said something though. He gave me this and told me it belonged to you. Then he said, _Koko made tadotte kita jikan no fuchi wo samayoi._" Cloud had a lot of trouble saying it. He actually looked surprised that he had remembered it so well. "I have no idea what that means. He said to tell you. That you might understand."

Something about that phrase did sound familiar, but I was not really sure what it was. _That song!_ It just suddenly popped into my head. I heard the song in my head and it was part of it. I was not sure of the meaning either, but I did remember what I had thought before about it. Someone had been trying to tell me something. Cloud handed me some materia. For a moment I ignored it, but then I noticed something about it. _This looks like that mist. _It was white, but it was not like the white materia that Aeris had with her. The color swirled around inside of it as if it were alive. Perhaps it was. I just put it away and had the thought that he might have been talking to me that day and this is what the song was talking about.

"I see." We were all silent for a long time. We now had to camp out in the snow for a while. The burning buildings kept us warm and they had left one place standing so that everyone had a place to sleep. In the morning they would destroy that as well. Everyone self, but I was left wondering. The feeling he gave me only one other thing made me feel like that. _The Abyss…._

* * *

Sephiroth watched from nearby feeling a strange kind of relief. He was glad that they were still alive. He did still need them after all. The most puzzling feeling was towards that girl. For a moment he was considering fighting that creature himself, but after they disappeared he was not sure what to do. He had apprehensively awaited their return.

"Why…why do I have these feelings? Why do I have feelings at all towards her?" He asked himself. Even though this body was just a tool it still felt. He was confused by her. By how he felt just in seeing her. Seeing her in pain made him want to help her. He could not understand why. He looked down at the locket again. For whatever reason he could not part with it. Every time he tried he ended up picking it back up. "Why? Should I remember you?"

* * *

"You changed my life completely and I couldn't be happier for it. You are the only person in the world that makes me truly feel good about myself. I would never give that up for anything. I made a promise to you years ago, when I first joined the military. I promised to protect you. I couldn't bear to lose you again. I will keep you safe."

* * *

"W-what was that?" Sephiroth stood there clutching the locket to his chest. He looked at it and saw her face smiling at him. "Was that…a memory?"

**Author: **Kōri means Ice.

I got the idea from Doctor Who. The episode Silence in the Library is really good. The story encompasses 2 episodes. I did change things a bit so that it works with the story. Originally it is something called the Vashta Nerada that lurks in shadows eating meat, which lost their original habitat when they built the library and cut down their forest.

This chapter took forever to write. Kept changing the ending and decided to add the bit with Sephiroth. Anyway, keep reading and reviewing.


	84. Crater

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

Ch. 84 Crater

We were almost there. The crater was in sight. The closer we got to it the worse the weather got. This was the same for our mood. After what had happened days before I could understand. It had been a lot to handle. Losing a friend and the trust between us was very shaky. I had done that myself. I felt guilty for waiting so long, but I just could not bring myself to say it so openly before. The way he always spoke of him. _Can he ever forgive him? Or me?_

I shook off these thoughts. They were clouding my thoughts and distracting me from what was going on around me. Everyone was getting tired of the storms. I felt him nearby as well watching us. _He'll come out soon to taunt us. I wonder…what will happen now. He's acting different now. I wonder why?_

"I was waiting." A voice rang out. "I suppose it can't be helped if you took so long. That village delayed you a bit. A small hindrance." He said laughing.

"Sephiroth! Show yourself!" Cloud shouted enraged. Just hearing his voice made him feel angry.

"Do you hate me?" He asked appearing.

"I can't forgive you. Y-you killed her." He said shaking his fists.

"Hmph. What about you? Don't you remember yet?" He said. Cloud looked at him confused. "Hmm. So you don't then. Perhaps this will help you. You are nothing but a failed experiment." He said.

The scenery around us changed. Nibelheim appeared around us in flames. Bodies lay on the ground and Cloud looked around in horror. "W-what is this?"

"Do you remember? Before we set out this man took a photograph. Why don't you look at it." Sephiroth said pointing to the body next to him. Cloud hesitated. "Are you afraid that your fake reality will be shattered?"

The way he was acting made me want to speak up, but I knew it was useless. Cloud clenched his fist, tightened his lips and walked over to the man. The photograph lay beside him facing down. Cloud hesitated, but picked it up and slowly turned it over. The look on his face said everything.

"Do you remember now? That man…isn't you." Sephiroth said.

Cloud started shaking. "W-what is this?" Cloud shook as he looked at it. "This can't be right." He said shaking his head. He was thinking; trying to remember if he even knew the man he saw. I could see that it was hard for him, but I could say nothing. I would only make him feel worse. "I don't believe you!"

"The evidence is here." Sephiroth said. "Go on believing what you wish. Believe in you false reality." He said as he and the scene disappeared. Cloud stood there with the photograph still in his hand. It remained there for the rest of us to see. We could faintly hear Sephiroth laughing until it faded with the wind.

Tifa went to him. Cloud just stood there staring. "Cloud, I-I…." She stopped herself as he started shaking. I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Cloud, it's fine. You are you. That's all that matters." I said taking the picture. "Forget this for now." I glanced at it before tossing it on the ground hoping it would help him if I did so. _Zack…._ "Let's go. He's just messing with you."

"She's right." Tifa said finally. She knew that what he had said was true and so did I. However, this was definitely not the time for doubt. Cloud seemed to hesitate glancing at the ground where the picture had been. It had vanished now, but it was burned into his mind. He could not simply forget it. Then he just nodded and moved on.**

* * *

**Inside the crater some of Shinra had come there. They were glad to have followed those people. Hojo was the most pleased. He gazed up at the ceiling of the cave and laughed. It chilled the air around him and made the Turks flinch and frown. "So you're up there my boy. HAHAHA. They'll be here soon. I wonder what's going to happen? She'll be here too. This should be quite interesting." He looked around seeing the weapons. _I have a feeling they'll be a problem too. Hmm. I do hope I get the outcome I'm hoping for. Otherwise, all of this would be a waste of time._ He looked up again at Sephiroth. "All we can do now is wait." He said shrugging. **

* * *

**

"We need to decide who will go. The rest should stay here in case something happens." Cloud said. A few people opted out of going. It had little or nothing to do with them and they felt more obligated to help if needed only. I had the feeling that it would not matter if I stayed or went. The outcome would be the same. I just was not sure what that meant. "Lilia?"

"I have a strange feeling about this."

"Like what?" He asked. I just shook my head.

"I'm not really sure. It's just a weird feeling." I said.

_Please come see me. I'll be waiting._ I looked around. None of them had heard it. It was really him. This time it was not her or through her. He spoke to me directly this time. At least, that is how it felt.

"What's wrong?"

"N-nothing. I guess I have to go. He's inviting me."

"Sephiroth?" He asked. I nodded. "I see. Well…that's two of us then."

"I'm going." Tifa said suddenly. "We do have business after all." She said. We just nodded.

"One more thing. We can't take this there with us." Cloud said holding out the black materia. "If Sephiroth gets this…then it's over. So one of you will have to hold onto it." He looked around going over it in his mind. Who did he trust with this? Not Cait Sith, he had already stolen from us once. Not Yuffie either for obvious reasons. Cid declined and so did Vincent. Barret just gave him a look that said no. He did not even want to touch it. That just left Red XIII.

"Red, no Nanaki." Cloud said walking over to him. "It seems you are the best choice here. Could you please hold onto this while we're gone." Cloud said.

"Me?" Cloud nodded and handed over the materia. "I will make sure it stays safe." He told him feeling somewhat honored that he trusted him so. That done we left. I knew that no matter who held onto it Sephiroth would get it, but I also could not help wondering if Sephiroth had somewhat influenced that choice. Many of the others would think twice about coming to bring us the materia if asked. _Would it even matter if I spoke up?_

We were already leaving. I glanced back at them. Each of them watched us go, Nanaki with the most serious face. Part of me felt sorry for not saying anything. _I'll apologize later even if you don't understand why._ I told myself.

Up ahead was a large cavern. When we went inside we were greeted with that laugh. _Hojo._ I cringed at the site and sound. "Ah, you've arrived. We waited for you. Well, somewhat."

"What are you doing here?" Cloud asked.

"Don't you see, he's up there!" Hojo said pointing and smiling ear to ear. "I have my own reasons for coming. I want to see what this reunion is all about with my own eyes." He said.

"Hmph." Was all he got back as a response. We all looked up at him. It was hard to see, but I could see him. Or rather what was left of him. _Looks like Cloud really did a number on him. Oh, Sephiroth, why did it come to this?_

"You have all come." Sephiroth said. For the first time it really sounded like him. However, that doll appeared before us. "Soon, it will begin." He said looking up at himself with his arms raised into the air. He turned around and looked at me. At first I had been looking up, but the look he gave me caught my attention. There was something there.

_He remembers._ The look in his eyes was recognition. He also looked a little confused though I could see that he was trying to hide it. It took me a moment to understand why. I…was crying. _Why am I crying? No. I know the reason. Seeing him like this is sad. It's hard. But he remembers now doesn't he?_

Then his expression changed dramatically as his focus changed. "Cloud." He said looking at him very seriously. "It's time you woke up." He said.

Cloud did not understand. He just looked at him bewildered.

"Wake up!" He said sternly his voice echoing. Cloud instantly reacted to it. He put his hands up to his face and shook and groaned as if he were fighting.

"Cloud?" Tifa shouted. She ran to him, but he pushed her away. "Why, Cloud?"

"Chkk. Tifa,…ahhh!" He fell on the ground and finally stopped shaking.

"You are a failed experiment, but you have been very useful to me." Sephiroth said.

"T-that's right." He said after a short silence. "I am…a failure…." He said shaking his head.

"That's right. You were a failed attempt of mine to clone Sephiroth." Hojo said looking thoughtful. "However, I abandoned the attempt and never even gave you a number." He said.

"Please, please give me a number. I'm…not…a…." Cloud started.

"Hmph. You're nothing to me now. I'm more interested in what's about to happen then a failed attempt. Tch." He said shaking his head in disgust at him.

This made Cloud angry. "I…am…not…a…failure!"

"You are, now…be a good boy and give it to me." Sephiroth said smiling.

"We don't have it!" Tifa shouted. "We weren't foolish enough to bring that here." She said laughing. However, Sephiroth also laughed.

"Oh, then what's that?" He said.

Nanaki came running in huffing and puffing. "I'm here, I brought the materia, Cloud."

_Nanaki…._ I looked at him sadly.

"No Red! Don't!" Tifa shouted. But Cloud had already taken it and even thanked him. He then backed away and suddenly was pulled up away from us. "Cloud!"

"And you…." Sephiroth said looking at me. "Tell me. Is it true? Are these…memories true?" He asked me in a different voice. I could see what he was remembering. They were only flashes of different memories all out of order. Many of them were intimate moments between us and only us.

"Yes…Sephiroth…."

"I see, then you must also despise me." He stated.

"Hmph." I said smiling a bit. "You really don't get it do you?" I said shaking my head and laughing a bit. "That is impossible for me." He just gave me this strange look. "You don't remember it all do you?" I asked. He shook his head a little. "You'll understand later then." I said smiling. "So I'll say this…." I paused for a moment and realized only he needed to hear me. _I forgive you._ He looked at me almost in shock. At the same time the room shook. All around us it started collapsing and breaking apart.

"It would seem they are waking up now." Hojo said. "If you don't come with us then you'll never make it out alive." Hojo commented. I just frowned at him from the floor. The shaking had knocked most of us to the ground.

"I think he's right." Tifa said. "As much as I don't want to admit it we don't have enough time." She said. I just nodded and frowned.

"Follow us then." Rude said leaving. We left quickly wondering what the others were going to do. Tifa was worried about that, but they were already there waiting for us. It seems they had gotten the same idea. However, no one was happy to be on the Shinra airship. Well, Cid kinda was.

We watched the crater fall apart as the weapons came out and flew off in different directions. I knew what their purpose was, but I also knew they would also cause problems. I wondered what Gaia thought of this. Had she really created them to protect this world or was it someone else? I got no response at all so I let it be.

Tifa passed out and once we arrived at Midgar we learned what they had decided would become of us. Hojo wanted me back in the lab and The Avalanche members would be executed. Everyone else could go free so long as they did not cause a fuss. We talked it over and agreed on what we would do. For now, we would agree and the others would come and rescue us. Cid wanted this airship for himself, especially since he had built it so it fit into the plan quite nicely. Of course, they were not really sure if things would go the way we planned. I just told them not to worry. "Everything will be fine."

"After that we should look for Cloud. Everyone is concerned about him." We all nodded and told them we agreed. They seemed to disbelieve us a bit, but we were quite serious.

"HAHAHAHA! I can't wait!" Hojo said laughing. **

* * *

**

Sephiroth stood there staring at Holy. He was in a state of shock. Jenova was speaking to him, but he ignored her for the time being. _That woman…she…forgives me…I don't understand. Why would she say that?_

_She is attempting to confuse you. Just ignore her. Focus your energy on preventing Holy from moving. If it stirs all of this will be for naught._

He understood what she said, but he could not ignore her. These memories of her came more easily by the day. He was starting to remember more and more about her. He also remembered how he had felt at the time. _I loved her. Didn't I? Is that right?_ He shook his head and sighed. _Why is this so hard for me? Why can't I just ignore her? _

* * *

"_I will always love you. No matter what. Nothing you do can make me stop loving you."_ She said smiling.

"I do." She said never taking her eyes off him. He felt so much from her in that moment. She loved him so much…. **

* * *

**

"Ach….what…that memory? Our vows. I remember now. I vowed to protect her and she vowed to love me forever. Did you know about this? You knew didn't you?" He said. He got no response. "Did you?" He knew he wouldn't. She was not here and could not answer. _They've gone too far to reach it seems._ _Did she know I would do this? Is that why she said that?_ The thought perplexed him and only infuriated Jenova. "Enough, mother. I cannot stop now. It's…too late for that. However, there is something you can do."

**Author:** Well, there it is. He remembers now, but it's only brought up more questions for him. Next will be the rescue and search for Cloud. I'm sure you're also wondering what Hojo will be up to as well. *Smiles evily* Hope you enjoyed.


	85. Rescue

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

Ch. 85 Rescue

I woke up feeling drowsy and sick. It had been a while since I had been in the lab. It had been almost six months since I had returned to Gaia. I sat up and looked around. Hojo was at his computer and a new pair of aids stood around me. Hojo looked very intently at the screen mumbling to himself. Part of me wanted to listen and find out what he was doing, but my mind could hardly function.

Scan after scan, and one examination after the other was a lot to endure. The aids picked me up and brought me over to the mako tank for a bath. When they put me in I almost freaked out. In my state the sudden sound of rushing water scared me a little bit. But I did realize what it was and calmed down. _I'll probably have to endure this for a little while. They'll need to get Tifa and Barret first. Otherwise, they might actually be killed._ After a few minutes my mind cleared from its fog.

Hojo was muttering something. He did not look very excited. _Hmm. She's much stronger than before, but there is much wear and tear. It would seem there is not much more I'll get from her. However, those two might benefit from her._

_Those two? What is he talking about?_

Hojo suddenly looked up and noticed that I was staring right at him. _I wonder if she heard that. It could pose a problem._ He thought. He came over to me and stood there mostly thinking. I ignored him. They were not important things. Finally, I grew tired of him and closed my eyes. I sighed thinking that I could not stay here too long. However, I was concerned about what he had said.

I had already been here for a few days. Mostly it had been nothing but tests and exams, but this was a bit of a shock. _I imagine they'll be coming for me soon. I should at least try to figure this out while I'm here. Could he have meant children? Do we have children?_ I thought. While I waited in the Mako bath I searched the building for another consciousness like mine. I found nothing and stretched it out further trying to reach into deepground. I did meet with some resistance, but did not find what I was looking for. _How old would they be by now?_ The thought alone was depressing.

* * *

Tifa woke up lying on a table. Barret stood nearby silently. She had no idea where she was or what had been happening. She groaned as she tried to sit up. "Barret, what's going on?"

"We're in junon. We're…to be executed soon. It's been about a week." He told her. "The others are out there and we already have a loose plan of what to do next. Lilia is in Midgar with _him._" He said cringing at the thought of Hojo.

"What about Cloud? What happened to him?" Barret merely shook his head.

"No idea. They others are going to rescue us somehow, then we'll go get Lilia, then look for Cloud." He said. "Also, there's this." He said opening the windows. Meteor loomed outside. It looked so close. "It's only been a week, but it's moving pretty fast. Gets closer every day." He said angrily. "Don't know how the fuck we're going to stop that, but if we don't the planet won't stand a chance."

Tifa agreed with him. She was not sure if their plan would work, but she hoped it did. She was not very fond of the idea of dying. She knew that Barret was not either. He sat close by looking much more thoughtful than the Barret she knew. _I've never seen him like this…so serious._

The door flew open and the Turks came to escort them to the execution room. Both in cuffs they walked in between a Turk silently gazing around looking for friendly faces. There was a viewing room just before the gas chamber. They saw no one. _I guess they're waiting, or don't want to be seen._ Tifa thought. If they were there it might look like they were planning something. She looked at all the people that were sitting there to watch them die. She frowned at them knowing that they all had low opinions of them. _They have no idea what this really is. They know nothing of what Shinra has done to the world. They created Sephiroth, and now look at things._ She thought.

"The woman will go first. We are broadcasting this all over the world as an example to those who oppose Shinra, and to show that those who do things that hurt others will be punished." A man said. Rufus was not in attendance to speak. He had other things to do. However, Scarlet and Hedeger were there both looking quite pleased with themselves. Tifa could not help think that she would like to wipe that smile from her face.

They separated her from Barret, who growled a little bit as they did so, and walked her into the room. One stood by the door while the other undid her cuffs and strapped her into the chair. He did seem to be a little clumsy about it though. As he left the key dropped to the floor near the chair. She watched them wondering if he noticed. It had hardly made a sound on the floor. When the door shut and she heard them turning on the gas she panicked for a moment before trying to reach the key. She stretched herself as far as she could in the chair having to try several times before getting the key in front of her. _It's a good thing I'm flexible or this would be hard._ She thought as she got the key between her shoes.

Outside everyone had arrived. Barret was glad to see them. He was starting to get worried that they would come too late. Tifa was still in the room and it was filling up fast. Outside they kept a count of how high the percentage of gas was. It was over halfway filled with gas when they busted in. Barret was glad for the direct approach this time. As they did so the alarms went off. Many of them had no idea what was going on and in the confusion Barret managed to get away from them. Yuffie got his cuffs off and he ran to the door trying to open it. As long as the room had gas in it the door was set not to open for anything unless told to drain the room first. He pulled on it trying to open it with pure strength and adrenaline, but his fear of losing her could not open the door.

"It's weapon! Weapon is attacking!" Someone shouted. They were at the window. Both Hedeger and Scarlet had already left. Hededger was trying to get things going. What those people did now would mean nothing if weapon killed them all first.

"Tifa!"

"It's not going to work Barret, that door won't open. We'll have to find a way to drain the gas first. Weapon will be our cover. They'll be too busy fighting him to deal with us." Vincent said. The building shook all of the sudden. "They fired the cannon, but I doubt that will be effective." They left looking for a control room.

The building shook again this time more violently. "Weapons attacking. Whose side is that thing on anyway."

"To it, we must all look like enemies." Vincent replied. Vincent got a call from Cid. He nodded and then closed the phone. "He says there's a change in plan, lets head to the airship."

"What about Tifa?" Barret said angrily. "We can't just leave her."

"She's fine. We're going to pick her up." Vincent said not wanting to waste more time talking. All of them headed outside to the platform where the Highwind sat. Cid was waiting and more than ready to go.

"All set?" He said. They nodded. "Alright then, looks like weapon is leaving now. Put a nice hole in there though. Saw her climb out of it. Looks like she's not alone though." Cid said glancing at the cannon. "This will be a bit tricky." He said looking at his workers. _I wonder if they're ok with doing this for free?_ "Fly her to the cannon as close as you can, but stay below it until she's closer to the end.

* * *

Tifa screamed as the ceiling broke and crumbled into the room. She had just managed to unlock the restraints on her arms. A cloud of gas flew out through the opening. She sighed a bit relieved for that. Soon it would have been too late. She had no idea what was going on, but this was her opportunity to escape. She carefully climbed out and realized she was on the cannon. There was really nowhere else for her to go. Behind her she heard someone else. She briefly turned around to see Scarlet pursuing her. _What does she think she's doing?_

"You're not getting away!" She shouted. Tifa stopped and turned to face her putting her fists up. She wondered what would happen next. "You think you can run away while we're dealing with weapon. Well, you just got lucky there, but I won't let you get a way. You will die here." She said to her.

Tifa stood there for a moment and laughed. _Does this woman even know how to fight?_ The way she stood there in front of her made her wonder. She wore a red dress and heels. Not something that says I'm ready for a fight. She did look very determined though. She got closer and Tifa let her wondering what she was going to try to do. She suddenly slapped her. It stung and was much stronger than she anticipated. It was not enough to knock her down though so she quickly retaliated with a slap to the face. She put a nice red mark on her and nearly knocked her over.

"You little bitch!" She said holding her cheek. "You will pay for that." She said seriously. She slapped her again, but Tifa did it right back.

_I guess this is all you've got, Scarlet. Don't think you can beat me like this. It's the only reason I haven't punched you out._ Tifa thought as they exchanged slaps a few more times. Behind her she heard voices calling out to her. Scarlet paused for a second as she noticed the airship. She was shocked and angry at the same time. Tifa took this opportunity to knock her down giving her much more than she could handle. She groaned sitting on the cannon and could only watch as Tifa ran to the end and jumped off. _Please let me make it. _She thought as she jumped. She was relieved when she felt the rope in her hands. The others would have to pull her up now, but she was safe and they could go get Lilia, and then find Cloud.

"Nice job. Knocked that bitch back a notch didn't ya." Cid said smiling at her. He hated Scarlet, and seeing her like that made him smile. "Now just got one more person to pick up. This one might be a little harder." He said thinking out loud.

"Yeah. How are we going to get her? I'm sure after the last time we were there they've upped the security." Tifa said.

"I'm sure you're right, but we'll find a way. Hopefully she'll be able to do a little bit of the work."

"I don't know. Hojo might not be dumb enough to let her stay coherent for too long. He must know she hates it there and wants to escape." Tifa commented.

"Either way. She's waiting for us." Vincent cut in. "We should go."

On their way they were trying to come up with a way to get her out that would be easiest. In a way they were starting to fight about the one they should try. Many of them sat there listening unsure of what to say or simply shook their heads. Vincent finally grew tired of this and decided to speak up.

"I'll go alone." Vincent said. "I know where the lab is. All I have to do is find her and come back." He said leaving them. He wanted this to be over soon. He also had plans of his own. There was someone he wanted to find. _Lucretcia. _He thought as he looked down at Midgar. They were now hovering above the city. He planned on jumping down and sneaking his way through. His powers allowed him to do so.

He managed to get to the lab without any trouble. As far as he could tell it was empty except for Hojo and her. She was in a mako bath. He hid and watched. Lilia noticed him there. She briefly nodded at him looking very happy to see a friendly face. Hojo sat quietly mumbling to himself and he noticed that Lilia had a concerned look on her face. Vincent wondered why, but that would have to wait. Finally, Hojo stood and drained out the mako finally removing her from the chamber. She did nothing for the moment, but after walking over to the elevator and opening it she knocks Hojo inside as hard as she can making him smack the wall. After closing the door and very quickly gathering her things they left.

"Finally!" She said outside. "Can't stand it in there." She looked around and then at him. "Where are they?"

Vincent just pointed above them. She looked up and smiled. "We should let them know we're waiting. They'll need to come down lower for us to board." Lilia just nodded. Behind them they heard footsteps.

"Where do you think you're going?" Rufus said. He and darknation came stalking up to them.

"I'm leaving. You can't stop us." Lilia replied. Vincent just shook his head and called Cid telling him they were ready and that they had company.

"Why do you insist on defying me? Why not join me?"

"Do you even know what's going on?" I asked him. He said nothing so I continued. "What is Shinra going to do about Meteor? Or Sephiroth? Or…are you going to fix your own company?"

"Shinra will not just sit there and watch the world be destroyed. We will deal with all of these problems that threaten us. You are also a threat. There was a time when I felt sympathy for you. When I perhaps had feelings for you, but no longer. You are the enemy and I will not let you continue to oppose me!"

The noise of the airship drowned out her laughing. Both of them hopped onto the ladder and flew away much like he had done before. Rufus stood there dumbfounded. _Fix the company? What does she mean by that?_ He thought before heading back into his office.

**Author:** Ok so now they have to look for Cloud and Lilia has obviously decided to look for her children if they even exist. This chapter is kind of a bit of filler chapter. Also hinting at something mentioned before in a previous chapter. I noticed that it's a little different, but I like it this way so I don't care.


	86. Cloud

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

**Note: If you haven't played through Crisis Core there are tidbits from it including the ending.** Hopefully most of my readers have, but just in case I thought I'd say something.

Ch. 86 Cloud

Cloud ran into the large cavern ready to fight Sephiroth, but what he found was something else. Shinra members stood there and Sephiroth was not in sight, but he felt him there. _Where?_ He quickly got his answer, but the moment he saw him his mind went crazy. So many images came to him and he was not sure which ones were what. _What's happening? What is this?_

Suddenly he understood. _Maybe it is the truth. Maybe I am just a puppet._ He thought. Everything happened so quickly and before he knew it he was holding the black materia and standing before Sephiroth. A voice in his head was telling him to give it to him. He was struggling with that, but he was not strong enough to stop it from happening. Sephiroth was stronger than him and he knew it. In his mind it was one more thing to add to the list of reasons to hate him. He handed it over and closed his eyes. _Forgive me everyone. I'm just too weak._ _I always have been._

* * *

Zack walked ahead of the others and Cloud followed closely behind only glancing back every once in a while to make sure they didn't fall too far behind. Zack took notice and started complaining. "Well, at least one of you can keep up." He said.

"I'm from the country actually so I'm use to it." Cloud replied. Zack smiled back at him.

"Me too!" He said before turning around and shouting it back to Tseng, who just waved him forward as he struggled to keep up with them. Zack laughed at the sight of it. "So where are you from?"

"You've probably never heard of it." Cloud said. "Nibelheim."

"Wow." He replied laughing a bit as he shook his head. "How about Gongaga?"

"What kind of name is that?"

"Tch. What about Nibelheim?" They both laughed and he knew he had a new friend though he still was not sure why a first would even talk to him.

* * *

"Cloud! Can you hear me? Don't worry, we'll get out of here just hold on." He heard Zack saying. He was not sure what was going on. Everything was black. He could not see. Suddenly he regained his senses somewhat and realized they were not in the same place. _Where am I?_

"I'll be right back, so just sit tight." Zack was saying. Cloud tried to answer, but he realized he was already gone. He heard a lot of sounds for a while and tried to discern what they were, but his mind could not clearly identify anything at the moment. He realized that while he could only hear he was being moved around. He did manage to recognize the sound of a vehicle and the ground passing beneath it. He was being taken somewhere. The only person that came to his mind was Zack. _Is he the one with me? Zack?_ He heard the sounds of fighting many times and the sound of the engine. Things seemed to endlessly repeat around him and he could not really comprehend what was going on around him. However, one clear moment did come to mind.

Zack was talking to him and they were sitting in the back of a truck. He had no idea where they were or how much time had passed. He realized that Zack was telling him different stories about what happened and suddenly he looked at him and smiled. "We are friends aren't we." He said with a bit of a laugh. He said it more as fact than a question, but all Cloud could do in response was murmur back to him. Zack signed at that and knocked on the window to talk to the driver asking him how much further. "Sure has been a long time. Hold on Aeris…." Zack said trailing off as he stared at the sky.

After that there was only silence until suddenly he found himself sitting on the ground looking around seeing bodies on the ground. They were Shinra soldiers and he had no idea what had happened. _What happened? How did I get here? Where am I?_ There was a loud ringing sound in his ears and he shook his head trying to get rid of it.

"What?" He said attempting to get up. He noticed that his clothes were different and it now began to rain. His mind felt cloudy. His vision was blurred and the rain only made that worse. After finally clearing his eyes he saw more clearly the scene around him. "Was there a war?" He said seeing all the bloodshed. He saw that he was very close to Midgar, but something was not right. He remembered something. "Zack!" He shouted. _That's right he was with me…taking care of me…. _He thought looking around. He was not sure why, but he could not seem to get to his feet. His legs felt heavy. "Where are you? Zack!" He kept shouting until he heard something. Coughing. He found him lying on the ground covered in blood and bullet wounds. He could see that he had little time left. "Zack!" Unable to stand he crawled over to him now getting covered in mud from the wet dirt.

"C-cloud…." He said before coughing up blood. He looked over at him looking quite pleased with himself, but there was a hint of sadness. "You have to survive…for the both of us…." He said and with one hand he reached out looking for his sword. Lifting it up he remembered Angeal and how he had received the sword. He wanted to laugh at it thinking that it must be fate that this sword is passed on like this. It brought a small smile to his face. "Take it…and don't ever lose your honor." Cloud sat there tears streaming down his face for his friend. He suddenly realized what he had done for him. Zack had saved his life and now he was dying. He wanted to save him, but there was nothing left for him to do. It was too late.

"I-I will. I promise." He said taking the sword from him. "Zack!" His hand fell to the ground and he looked up to the sky. For a moment there was silence and Cloud feared that he was already gone, but a smile appeared on his face.

"You know. I always wanted wings." He whispered. Zack closed his eyes thinking about Aeris. _I'm so sorry. I couldn't make it back to you._

"Zack! Zack!"

* * *

Cloud woke up not knowing at all where he was or what had happened to him or anyone else for that matter, and there were people around him he did not know. _What happened to me? Where is this? Who are these people?_ Suddenly a thought occurred to him. _Who am I?_ People walked around him doing this or that and he tried to communicate with them only to realize that no one was hearing him. _What's going on? Why can't they hear me?_

"Hi there. Looking a little bit better today aren't you." A woman said to him. "Hm. Looks like you still can't talk. If only we knew if you could hear us. Mako addiction can be quite serious." She said after a small amount of silence.

"That's enough. We have others to deal with." A man cut in. Cloud could hardly see them. He was having trouble keeping his head up. Everyone was gone out doing other things and he was left alone for a while.

_I know something important happened. I have to remember. What is it?_ Cloud struggled with it, but he could not bring up any memories. His mind was blank. _What do I do? I can't speak to them._

When they returned the woman came back and talked to him telling him about where he was and about how they had found him. From her story it sounded like he was lucky to be alive. _What happened to me?

* * *

_

"E-excuse me…" Tifa stood there for a moment almost in shock. "Cloud!" She ran to him and looked him over wondering if he was hurt. "W-what's wrong with him?" She asked.

"He has mako addiction. There is medicine for it, but I've never seen a case this bad. The medicine isn't having much effect. I'm afraid it's really up to him." The doctor said. Tifa stood there shocked. She could not believe this was happening. "It seems that you know him so it might be good for you to talk to him. It might help." He told her. She just nodded as he left.

"Cloud…it's me, Tifa. Can you hear me?"

"…..nm…hn…..mm….."

"Cloud…." It was hard for her to see him like that, but all she wanted to do was help him. She also needed to tell the others. _After what happened at the crater he ended up like this…._

"So…is he here?" Barret asked. Tifa looked at him sadly.

"I found him, but he's not doing so good right now. He has mako addiction. He can't respond at the moment." She said trying not to cry.

"That means he's not going anywhere until he gets better. If he does." Cid commented. All of them looked at each other, but Tifa had already made up her mind.

"I'll stay with him. We can't just sit here idly while the rest of the world falls apart. You can handle things without us for now and I'll let you know if there is a change." She said very determined.

"Tifa." Barret understood.

"He'll make it through this, Tifa. So don't worry." Lilia said placing a hand on her shoulder. She sounded so confident in that statement.

"Can I ask you something?" Tifa asked her. She removed her hand and nodded. "You said we should look here. Did you know where he was?"

"What makes you think that?"

"The way you said it. It was like you knew we would find him in this town."

"It was just a hunch. How long could we really afford to look? We're running out of time." _And there are other things I need to do._ Tifa seemed satisfied and did agree with her statement. They all felt like time was short and they needed to act quickly. However, none of them knew how long Cloud would be this way. With the barrier blocking their way to Sephiroth none of them knew what to do.

"Hey Cid, can you take me to Nibelheim?" Lilia asked.

"Why there?" He was curious, but the look on her face said she was going no matter what he told her. "Guess it doesn't matter. Let's go then." He said shaking his head. Tifa went back to cloud and everyone else got on the airship and headed to Nibelheim.

* * *

Cloud listened to the people around him, but he started to feel very frustrated that no one could hear him speak. He had so much to say…so many questions to ask this woman who seemed to know him so well. He also wondered about his dreams. _Are they even dreams or are they memories. Why can't I tell the difference? Are they even my memories?_

"Cloud, I hope you can hear me. We need you to get better. I know you can do it. You may have had your doubts about things, but you always managed to come through for us." Tifa said to him. He listened, but was not sure what to think. Obviously she knew him and was worried, but he could not remember her.

"Alright, it's time for his treatment." The doctor said resting his hand on her shoulder. She nodded and then sat up to move out of his way. She stood close by and watched everything he did. She was wondering if the medicine was even working. They had already said it had been ineffective. The doctor assured her that his condition was improving, but at a very slow pace though he was starting to think it had something to do with her. "How things turn out depends on him. He must find the strength to come out of this. Something is holding him back, but his is the worst case I've ever treated. It's going to take some time."

Cloud heard this too, but was not sure what he meant. _How things turn out depends on me? I can't even talk to them…._ He thought. It seemed very hopeless to him. _What do I do? What can I do? _

* * *

"No, there's been no change. He still just murmurs with his head down. I just…don't know what to do." Tifa said over the phone. She listened for a little bit nodding every so often. "Oh, so that's what's going on. I imagine she's very worried. Is she alright?" She listened again and then looked surprised. "Weapon? Coming here? Then what should we do?" She nodded a few times, but the worried look on her face never left. She kept glancing at Cloud worriedly. "Thanks. Just try to get here as soon as you can and I'll let everyone know."

"What is it?" The doctor asked. The look on her face told him it was important.

"Weapon is coming. We should try to get everyone out of here. There's no guarantee that he will attack, but from what I heard he's attacked a few other towns." Tifa said.

"I see. How close?"

"We might not have enough time. The others are coming too." Tifa said. "I'll get Cloud." She said looking over at him. It had only been a week and he was still in the same shape. She was worried, but in this condition she was not sure what was going to happen. _Cloud, please get better soon._ She thought.

"….mmh….mm…." Cloud murmured. Tifa got closer.

"What is it? Are you trying to say something?" Tifa said leaning in close.

"It's coming." He replied very clearly. His eyes were even different in that moment of clarity. He was quite pleased with himself that he was able to say it and it actually be heard.

"Weapon?" She said. That was confirmed by the doctor running inside telling them to get out because weapon was attacking. "Alright, we have to go!" She said grabbing the wheelchair and pushing him outside. "Can't go too fast or he'll fall out." She commented. The ground around them began to crumble. She could see the others all standing with the townspeople. She was relieved by that. _They must have been helping everyone else. I don't think we'll make it to them like this though._ The path was gone and she noticed something odd about the ground. _Is that the lifestream?_ She thought looking at the green color.

"Tifa! Hurry or you'll fall." Barret shouted at her.

"He's coming back!" Yuffie shouted. "Right at us!" She yelled as she jumped onto the ground. He did seem to be aiming at someone in particular.

"Lilia, look out!" Tifa shouted. As she said it the ground around her crumbled "Cloud!" She grabbed onto him and held on tightly. At the same time weapon swooped down on them and swiped Lilia into the lifestream as well. He seemed a little miffed that she was gone, but the others were there to defend the townspeople. They were trying to force him back into the air hoping that he would leave. He suddenly had the feeling that he was done with this place and flew off towards one of the other continents.

Everyone on the ground sighed in relief, but still some had died and a few had fallen into the lifestream. They were worried about them and no one knew what would happen to them down there. However, right now all they could do was wait. **

* * *

**

Tifa woke up and looked around confused. For a moment it was dark, but she was seeing something else. Three Clouds with different scenes before each one. "W-what's going on? What is this?" She suddenly noticed Lilia close by and decided to check on her. She was injured, but it did not look all that bad. "She should be ok, but what about Cloud? I was holding onto him…what happened to all of us? Where are we?" She asked, but no one answered. She decided to look around and see if she could figure things out.

"Cloud?" She said hesitantly to the closest one. He turned towards her and looked very sad. "What's going on?"

"Am I even real?" He stated. "I don't know anymore. I have…too many doubts." He said. The scene before them was of Nibelheim. Suddenly it started to move and Sephiroth appears with Cloud followed by other soldiers. They talk a little bit and then move on.

"I…was there too when they arrived." Cloud looked at her confused. "You weren't there." She told him. He felt devastated by that. "I thought that if Soldiers were coming that maybe you would be one of them, but I didn't see you. I really was disappointed. I decided not to say anything because I didn't want to confuse you. I didn't know what to say."

"Then maybe he was right. I'm just a clone…I'm not really Cloud…." He said sadly.

"You are real! I know it. Try and remember something from when we were kids. If we both remember it then that means it was real and you are Cloud. It has to be something that no one else would know."

"Maybe…." He started. The scene before them went dark and he became silent. Tifa stood there for a moment not sure what to do, but then decided to move on. She walked up to the next cloud. This one was a child.

"I remember we went on the mountain playing and you got hurt." He said looking up at her. She could not help herself in thinking that he looked so cute.

In the scene Cloud as a child stood outside her house pacing back and forth. "Everyone blames me for what happened." He said to himself. "I tried to help her, but I'm just too weak!" He said almost shouting. "Soldiers are strong. If I could be like that then things like this won't happen! I'll prove to everyone that I can be strong and protect people!"

"That's when I decided to become a soldier. I never wanted to feel weak again."

"That's right. After I got hurt you suddenly decided to join Soldier and you left. I looked in the paper for your name, but I never saw anything. I began to worry, but I had faith in you." Tifa replied.

"Yeah, but there's still the question of what happened that day? Was I there or not?" He said holding out a picture

"That picture. It's the one we took before going up the mountain." Tifa said taking it from him. "I think his name was…Zack."

"Zack…." He repeated and then went silent. She knew what that meant. The last one stood there waiting for her and he seemed more animated than the others. "I remember him. He was nice to me. To everyone." Thinking about it Tifa did remember that he seemed nice, but also very serious.

"He seemed kind of sad." Tifa stated.

"I was there, but when I saw you…I was embarrassed. I hadn't made it into soldier." He said shaking his head.

"It's alright. You are strong. You made it this far." She told him hoping to encourage him.

The scene moved and showed them what really happened. He was an infantryman and Tifa was surprised to know how close he had been to her. "I was there and I tried to protect you, but you still got hurt." He said clenching his fist.

"I thought I was dreaming." Tifa said. "I never knew it was really you." She said shaking her head.

"Thanks, Tifa. Without you…I would have never realized this." He said before fading away.

"Cloud?" She looked around for him and found him sitting nearby with his head down. He seemed alright so she decided to check on Lilia. She was not even sure how much time had passed.

"Lilia…wake up."

"Ungh. What happened?" She said sitting up. "Where am I?" She wiped her eyes and looked around. Cloud was sitting nearby facing away from them. Tifa stood over her and smiled.

"Looks like you're ok." She looked over at Cloud. "Looks like he'll be ok too." She said.

She looked over at him and smiled. "Good." However, she looked down and frowned.

"What's wrong?" Tifa asked.

"We didn't find them." She said. "He was just playing with me!" She said slamming her hands on the ground.

"Apparently I've missed a lot." Cloud said suddenly. "I do remember now. I met you once. It was your birthday I think." He said looking down.

"It's ok. I didn't expect you to remember."

"You two did look happy then. What happened to change him?" He asked. No one really knew the answer. "I remember that day now. He was talking about you, and said it was your birthday. I guess he had given up on everything." He said shaking his head.

"I really don't know, but I do know that it wasn't just me. A lot was going on at the time. I wasn't the only person he lost. Maybe it just took a toll on him." Lilia said.

"So…how do we get out of here?" Lilia stood up and looked around. The scenes around them were from Clouds past. The night he made the promise to Tifa, her mother's death…and that day….

The images began to fade away and it got so bright they could hardly see. Lilia also realized that she was hurt. _That's right. Weapon attacked me, but why? What was the point of it?_

_Forgive him. In a way he must feel that you are a threat because of the possibilities, but you are our only chance. If you can't beat him then it's over…and we need Sephiroth on our side. You must get through to him._

Someone said to her. _Gaia? Is that you?_ There was no answer as they suddenly came to the surface. Each person coughed and then Lilia cringed in pain. Someone helped them out of the lifestream and talked about what happened and what to do. Cloud decided to come clean to everyone about his past. It was the least he could do.

"Thanks to Tifa I remember everything now. At the crater I realized that I didn't remember some of our journey and started to believe Sephiroth; that I was just a clone, but that's not true. Even before you found me I was remembering something. Albeit a painful memory." Cloud said pausing for a moment.

"Some of what he said is true. I was never a Soldier. I was just an infantryman. I was at Nibelheim though. Sephiroth and Zack were sent there to check on the reactor. However, when Sephiroth burned the town he almost killed Tifa and Zack. Zack asked me to kill Sephiroth and I did surprise him enough to injure him. How sad he looked then…." Cloud paused again. "After that I was stricken with Mako Addiction and Zack is the one who saved me. I had no idea what he had done for me. Even in that small moment of clarity I really didn't know. He died and I headed to Midgar and after all of the trauma I endured my mind attempted to piece things together, but it mixed things that Zack had been telling me on our journey to Midgar. It wasn't until now that I was able to figure things out." He said sadly. "I'm sorry everyone."

"Don't worry about it. It's not like we've been doing nothing, however, things didn't quite go as well for all of us. We've been collecting the Huge Materia. Shinra is after it to use in their cannon that they moved over to Midgar from Junon." Cid said.

"The cannon? What are they planning with that?"

"From the look of things they're going to fire it at the crater in hopes of breaking through the barrier. We managed to snatch a few of them before shinra could." Cid replied laughing. "There's one in the underwater reactor at Junon." He finished.

Cloud looked over at Cait Sith knowing he must have told everyone this. Part of him was wondering why he was being so helpful even though he was working for Shinra. He ignored that because it was not really important. "Is that all that's been going on."

"Well…er…no. Actually, there was something else, but that didn't go so well."

"Waste of time." Lilia spat out. She was looking down and shaking.

"W-what happened exactly?" She had said something before, but had not explained it.

**Author:** I tried to make the part where Zack died as sad as possible, but I don't think it was sad enough. Hell…watching it on the game made me cry. Anyway, I'm apartment hunting and will be on my own again. Roommate is getting her own place tho I don't really see that going well cuz of her mom. I'd love to just punch her in the face.

Anyway, did this one a little bit differently. Tried to do it from Clouds POV as much as possible. I'm having a lot of free time from work right now…not really a good thing cuz I'm not getting paid or anything…sigh.


	87. Treasure Hunt part 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

Ch. 87 Treasure Hunt part 1

As soon as we boarded the airship Cait Sith had something to tell us. "Shinra seems to be working hard on something, but they have also been trying to keep things from me since I'm working with you all. However, I managed to nab this." He pulled out what looked like a materia, but it was much bigger than the ones we all used. "It's called huge materia. When combined they can pack a lot of power. It seems that they are planning to use it in the cannon they've erected in Midgar." He said.

"Midgar has a cannon now? Did they take it from Junon? Is that even possible?" Barret said. Cait Sith just nodded as a reply.

"So what should we do?" Cid asked. Then he looked at me. I was still determined to look for them even if I had to go alone. "What about you. What exactly are you planning to do in Nibelheim?"

"I just need to check on something. It's a bit personal. Besides, I could be wrong anyway." I told him. "I'll go alone if I have to." I said very determined.

"Hm. I don't think you'll have to do that." Cid said. "Someone can go with you while the rest of us go after the Huge Materia. Sounds like Shinra is going to try something crazy with it so we should do what we can until Cloud gets better."

"I guess so, but who?"

"I'll go with you." Vincent said volunteering. I was kind of surprised that he did that. After that Red volunteered as well.

Once we arrived the airship left and headed towards the Corel Reactor. I said nothing as we headed to the mansion and then into the underground passage. There was a door that everyone had noticed before, but we had ignored. This time I stopped in front of it almost hesitating to go in.

_I don't know if they're here or not, but I have to know for sure._ I thought as I opened the door. It was a laboratory much larger than the small one in the other room. I had not seen anything in there before so I assumed that there was nothing there for us to find, but I did plan to check the research notes just in case.

This lab looked like it had not been used in a while. They all guessed that it must have been abandoned years ago, but there was still a chance that Hojo had been here doing something. Dust covered almost everything. There were a few chambers that were all empty. They heard nothing but silence in there.

"What exactly are you looking for?" Red asked. I did not respond as something had caught my eye. One of the screens was on displaying information about something. Red took no notice, but I read it very intently. "What is it?"

"Hojo…I'll kill him." I said clenching my fists.

"I take it he left that for you to find." Vincent said. I merely nodded.

"If you're here reading this then I guess my secret is out. You won't find them here. Sorry, but I can't let them go just yet…after all they are my only human test subjects left. I don't need you anymore…or _him_. However, if you want to find them we can play a game, but don't think it will be easy. You'll have to put your life on the line for this one." Lilia read aloud.

"Them? What is he talking about?"

"….." I lowered my head and started shaking. "That bastard…has…my…children!" I slammed my fist on the console trying not to break it until I was done, but I was so angry at the moment.

"C-children?" Red repeated giving me an odd look.

"I see. So that is why you've been acting strange." Vincent commented. "You're worried about them. Knowing Hojo he's probably already done something to them." He said almost sadly.

"I know that!" I said not looking at them. "I know what it's like to live like that. I…never wanted this to happen." I said dropping to the floor.

"Don't worry. If they're anything like you…then they're fine." Red said trying to comfort me. "What else does it say?" I merely nodded and pulled myself back up.

"We'll do a treasure hunt! However, don't expect this to be like any other treasure hunt. What you have to do is think hard about these clues. Each one gives a little hint as to where they are right now. However, in order to obtain the next clue you'll have to take it from something. That is something I made specifically for you! I do hope you can survive! The data I collect would be most helpful later on….he's actually laughing about this!"

"Do we really have time for this?" Red asked.

"There's no telling when Cloud will get better. Also, there are other things we need to do. We have to handle the situation with Shinra and then there is Sephiroth." Vincent said.

"We won't have to worry about that right now." I said. "What! You've got to be kidding!" I said reading more.

"What now?"

"We have a time limit!" _Three days to find them before they're moved. Is that even enough time?_ "Three days…and then we have to start all over!"

"Three days? Can we even do that?" Red said thinking.

"I-I don't know…."

"We could try. We have some free time right now with the current situation, but I do have to ask what you meant by what you said." Vincent said. He did not really seem all that concerned about anything though.

"He's right. We shouldn't worry about them? Why not?" Red asked.

"Everything will work out." I reply still reading the message.

"How do you know that?" Red said. "Is what Tifa said true? Did you know where Cloud was?"

"It's…complicated…ok….."

"Complicated? I don't get it."

"Let it go for now. We don't seem to have much time. What is the first clue?" Vincent said.

"Says to look in the other room in one of the coffins." I said.

"One of the coffins?" I nodded and left the room. They followed more slowly. "Who knows what we'll find, but I doubt we're simply going to find them." I started opening the first one.

"Nothing….." Then I opened another with the same result. "This is the last one in this room." I opened it and there was a note.

_Since this is the first clue I thought I'd give it to you for free, but don't think I'll be doing that again. Anyway…go look around Modeoheim. I'm sure you find something interesting there._

"Modeoheim?" _Never heard of that place before._

"Where's that?" Red asked.

"If memory serves it was located on the northern continent not too far from Icicle Inn." Vincent said. I just nodded and left. Part of me was so upset that Hojo was playing this game with me and I had the feeling that this was only a game and we were not going to find them, but I just could not risk that. _I have to try!_

Once back on the airship Vincent and Red filled everyone in on the situation. I was too upset and too worried to say anything. "Oh, well then. I guess that you should help her out for now." Cid said. "We'll handle everything else." He said sounding concerned. "Hope things work out."

"If Hojo is playing this game…then I imagine we have little chance of finding them in three days." Vincent said. "His message said to go to Modeoheim."

"All the way there? Why that place. It's been abandoned for years." Cid said.

"Can we go now." I finally said. "We're wasting time."

"I'll drop you off; just give me a call when you're ready to leave." Cid replied. I rushed outside for some air.

_I've got to calm down. I can't let this get to me. Calm down._

"Better?" Vincent said behind me.

"I'm sorry. It's a lot to handle right now." I told him. "And…I don't think we are going to find them this way."

"Neither do I, but there is a chance. You might find something at least." He told me. "Hojo will guard them if he wants to keep them, but I'm sure that won't last forever. This…isn't the first time he's done this."

"Vincent…."

"When Sephiroth was born…he refused to let his mother go near him. I tried to help them both, but…I failed."

"Vincent…I don't know what to say."

"You already knew this." He replied.

"What?"

"You try and hide it, but the truth is…you know more than you let on. It comes out every once in a while. We question it, but the way things are…it really doesn't matter."

"Maybe they just don't want to think about it. If I told the truth…what would they think of me? Hmph. I didn't know what to believe at first, but what choice did I have?"

"I don't know." He replied. "But we are your friends, Lilia, we won't abandon you." He said leaving.

"Thanks."

* * *

**Modeoheim**

The city was covered in a thick blanket of snow. No life. Only the sound of the snow crunching under our feet could be heard. The city was a ghost town. The way things looked it is amazing anything is still standing.

"There was also a reactor here. This town has been out of commission for a long time." Cait Sith told us. "Maybe I should check on things in Midgar. Might be able to help you find something a bit faster."

"I wonder if he knows that we found the message or not." Red said.

"He knows." I stated scanning the area.

"There's no telling what you'll find here." He said heading back to the airship.

We all took some time to look around and see what we could find. Everything had been left behind. "I smell blood…it's very old." Red told us. "What happened here?"

"Not sure. I never came here." Vincent replied. "Shinra was once interested in this area for its potential with Mako, but that's all I really know."

"I don't know anything about this place." I did have a strange feeling though.

The largest building looked like and Inn/Bath House. "I believe this is what Modeoheim was once famous for." Vincent said. Looked horrible, but it was hot. Nothing had power at all. We walked around the room looking for clues or anything notable. "I don't think we'll find it here." Vincent commented. None of us had found much, but I had found an old paper. I was curious and decided to read some of it. It said that monsters had suddenly begun to grow stronger a few months after the reactor was complete. Most people were concerned, but confident that Shinra would fix the problem. However, at this point, they were starting to realize there was a new threat. A rumor that someone was hiding out in the reactor and Shinra was not happy with that. Many began to speculate that this person was the reason for the sudden increase in monster activity. "Find something?"

"A paper. It must have been the last one they made. Talks about the reactor and some mysterious events going on." I replied. "Doesn't say much else."

Vincent glanced over it and then we moved on going deeper into the building. We found a hole leading outside and decided to keep going. None of us were sure what lie ahead. Finally we got to a large open room. There was a computer sitting over in the corner. I immediately went over to it. Just in turning it on we got more than what we expected.

"Well, looks like you've made it. I'm sure you don't know, but something rather interesting happened here." Hojo said on the screen. It was just a recording, but it was still unnerving to see him. Red growled slightly after hearing him. "Genesis was using the facility nearby to create clones. During that time you were missing. A small group was sent to investigate and eradicate any opposing threat. I'm sure you'd find it interesting to know who showed up here!" He said laughing a little bit. "Though it did take me some time to learn this I wonder if you know?" He said leaning forward with one eyebrow raised. "Well, I'm sure you'll understand quite soon what I mean. That will be part of your clue. If you win perhaps you can figure out where to go next. I really can't wait to see what happens. Good Luck!" He finished as the screen went blank.

"Jerk." I commented.

AGGGGHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

At once we all turned around to find that something else was here. A monster unlike anything we've seen before. It was huge and mostly made up of other monsters, however, it had some human qualities. _What is that thing?_ From the hip down it was a monster with a large four legged body and tail. It had a human upper body with four wings protruding from its back. It reminded me of a chimera, but this was different. It's neck was longer and the head was like a horse with a face on its forehead. "It can't be!" I said shocked.

"What is it?" Red asked crouched down ready to attack.

"A-Angeal?" I said taking a step back. I saw flashbacks of him. My father. Tears came, but I quickly wiped them away.

"So this monster was once a human?" Vincent said. "You knew him?" He said. I nodded, but was not quite sure it was right.

"But, he died." I said more quietly. The monster roared and then charged at us. I froze for a moment trying to understand the situation. _What is the point of this?_

"Lilia!" Red jumped at me and knocked me to the side just as the monster swiped him across the room.

"Red!"

"Stay focused or you'll die." Vincent said as he diverted its attention so we could have a shot at it. Red came back fighting, but he was hurt. He was slower than before. He showed no signs of the injury so that it would not ignore him. I was having a hard time fighting him. _Is that really him? It can't be._ "Lilia!"

"Angeal, stop!" I shouted at it. This of course did nothing, and he came at me one arm in the air claws ready. "Father!" I said tearing up. It paused for a moment, but still came. "Why? I can't…." I felt arms around me.

"It's not human anymore, Lilia." Vincent said. "It's trying to kill you. You have to defend yourself."

"What if it is him? I can't…." I said lowering my head.

"Perhaps, but would he want you to die this way?" He said before attacking again.

That's when I remembered. _I can't go back there anymore._ He had said that in The Abyss. Once there he could not return here to Gaia. That was the end of his journey. This thing had to be a clone. Somehow Hojo had made it, but I still got the feeling that there as something all too human about it. _He would want me to fight. Were it him…he would want that._

I fired several rounds to catch its attention. I took notice of the fact that every shot merely bounced off of his skin. _His skin must be tough._ "I don't think that bullets will affect him."

"You might be right. It seems there are places that are weaker. We'll have to aim there." Vincent said. "We should end this quickly. He's strong."

I just nodded and ran at him hoping to get at his weak spots before he could see me. Red had all of his attention, but he was not fairing too well. His wound was hurting him more now and it begun to show. The monster took notice and quickly acted. He leapt up and swooped down on him landing with one foot pinning him down. At the same time it's tail flicked back and forth and finally Vincent could not avoid it. He too had decided to get in close in hopes of injuring it with his claw rather than his gun. "Red! Vincent!" I was most worried about Red. After it moved and went after Vincent, who quickly managed to recover, Red laid there not moving at all. I ran to him and immediately started healing him. "Red, wake up!"

"Lilia! Ugh." Vincent shouted. I turned around and saw him lying on the ground bleeding.

"Vincent!" _Red is still in bad shape! I can't help them both._

_You need help again? Sure you should be making a habit of it?_ That voice said laughing.

_Think! Think! There's a way. I can immobilize him no problem, but she can't hold him forever, but it's more than enough time to use a limit. I'll have to use a strong one too._

_Hmph. I must say I'm disappointed. We're one in the same, but you're too frightened of what could happen._

_If I can do it on my own then what's the point? Get over it!_

_Telling yourself that won't get you anywhere._ The voice laughed.

For a moment the monster paused. I was getting ready to give it my all. This was a limit I had never used before. I was a little anxious about the result or what might happen. I could feel the power welling up inside me and so could the monster. The way he stood there in a defensive position told me he must feel danger. However, it seemed to decide that it had to stop me from doing anything. It charged and at the same time my shadow leaped forward and stopped him in his tracks. I saw him struggling to free himself almost desperate to get away from her.

My back started to hurt along my shoulder blades and it felt like knives were ripping through my skin. I groaned at the pain and noticed feathers. Some were white, some were black floating through the air. _So I have wings too. Would they call me a monster as well?_ I thought. I tightly gripped my gunblades and leapt into the air flying for the first time. It was a strange feeling. I could see everything. What happened next was very quick and for a moment I was not even sure if I had moved. When I looked back at him he was burning and several large gashes were on him in various places all bleeding quite heavily. There were a total of seven cuts. A few seconds later his form began to change as pieces of his body began to fall apart leaving only a human shape behind. He collapsed as the many monster parts around him remained ablaze.

"A-Angeal!" I ran to him and sure enough it looked just like him. I lifted his head and placed it in my lap. "Angeal?" He opened his eyes, smiled, and then shook his head.

"No…I'm just…a copy." He said shakily. "Hojo made me in an attempt to understand us all. Hmph. I guess I'm a failure too." He said almost laughing. Vincent was finally up, but did not come too close. It seemed we were having a moment. "You should go to Banora. I've never actually seen it, but it was once a nice town. That's where _he_ is from. Angeal." He said almost trying to imagine it. "It was destroyed, but there is still something there. Hojo told me that." He said slowly. For some reason I had the feeling that this moment meant something, but I could not figure it out. It was a strange feeling.

_This is what could have happened, but if it had…you would not exist._ A voice said.

_Gaia?_

_This was another destiny for him. Had this happened before he arrived on Earth then history would be different. You would never have been born._

She told me this and I was not really sure what to think. I wrapped my wings around him as I realized that he was gone. His body began to disintegrate. I cried a little bit thinking that this could have been Angeal and that I had seen something similar to this before. Eventually the wings too disappeared in a sea of feathers. I just shook them off and stood up leaving without saying a word. For a moment I had forgotten about Red and Vincent. Both were hurt and I'm sure they were mending themselves and could forgive me for not helping them at a time like this. Neither of them really knew everything that the copy brought up for me. In a way, I felt as if I had killed Angeal myself.

"Lilia." Vincent said suddenly.

"V-Vincent…I'm sorry…." I said looking away. "I should have…."

"It's fine. We're ok. You saved us and I saw what you did. I'm sure Hojo would be proud." He said almost scoffing.

"Do you think they'll see me differently?"

"As a monster?" I just nodded. "Hmph. No." He said laughing slightly. "You're only a monster if you choose to be. They'll be here soon." He stated leaving me to my thoughts.

"Father…." I whispered as tears streamed down my face. I fell to the ground and cried wrapping my arms around myself and hunched over like I was in pain, and I was. I felt eyes on me. _Are you watching?_ I thought thinking that it was Sephiroth. There was no response. _I wish things had never changed…then you would be here holding me._ The thought made me cry more.

**Author:** This was just an idea I had been playing around with for a while. Finally got it into the story in a way I liked. Not sure how many chapters this little section is going to have. Will just kind of have to wait and see.


	88. Treasure Hunt Part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

Ch. 88 Treasure Hunt part 2

When the airship arrived we got on and once again Vincent and Red were the ones who filled everyone in on how things went. In the meantime they had been to Corel and back. "Somehow we managed to stop the train in time. It would've been a disaster for the town." Cid said. I hardly listened. After what happened they would be lucky if I even looked at them.

"Lilia?" Yuffie said over and over again. "Was it really so bad?" She said not really comprehending what we had done.

"Yuffie. What we fought might have only been a clone, but it was still a living thing. A human that she killed resembling that of her father." Vincent said. "Hojo is simply playing with us. Perhaps he wants to see what she can do? Or maybe it is just a game." He paused glancing at me. "Whatever the case he is watching this very closely. Whatever comes next…."

"Might be even worse." I finished for him. "Banora…that's where _they_ are from."

"They? Who?" Yuffie asked looking confused. "Where's Banora?"

"Banora is quite close to Mideel actually and was famous for its apples. They were called Dumbapples. Their apple juice was what made a few people in the town very wealthy." Caitsith stated. "However, after Shinra destroyed Banora in an attempt to cover up the disturbance that Genesis caused that industry declined and soon disappeared becoming rare and valuable for a while."

"Genesis…Rhapsodos…." I said slowly. Everyone looked at me. "Hmph. I wonder if he'll be there?"

"As far as I know Genesis is dead." Cait Sith replied.

"No. He's not dead." I stated. "Would be nice if that were true, but I know it's not."

"How could you know that?" He asked.

"Because, Reeve." I said almost angry. "Shinra never changes. Sephiroth told me what Zack told him after he fought and defeated Genesis. Shinra took his body away. Firsts in fact." I said standing up. "If Shinra took his body I doubt he died. But even if we do see him, I doubt that the real Genesis will be there." No one said a word when I said that. After a long silence I noticed that Cid was already steering the airship to Banora.

"You sure you'll be alright after this?" Cid asked.

"No." I stated. "I feel like…I killed him. Like I killed my father, but I know that's not true."

"You seem pretty sure you're going to see this, Genesis guy at Banora."

"Banora was his hometown. He was also a first, but he betrayed shinra. He hurt a lot of people…and for what…." I said trailing off.

"That why you hate him so much?" Cid said bringing me back. I vehemently shook my head.

"He tortured me for six months. He turned thousands of people into monsters!" I said shaking. "That's why I hate him."

"That was never confirmed." Caitsith said. "What happened in Deepground I'm afraid is locked inside now."

"I was there...so I know." I said shakily. "Usher's wife was there too." I said shaking more. "I had to tell him she would never come back to him or his children. Genesis did that."

"I'm sorry…." Caitsith replied.

"I'm not looking forward to this."

* * *

"My my, she's much stronger than I gave her credit for. Looks like she may even still have more potential than that." Hojo said laughing as he replayed it over and over. Something that she said had gotten his attention. She was calling Angeal her father. _Could that be true?_ He wondered. He had never been able to decrypt that part of Genesis' notes. It had taken him a month to get the password only to realize that he would have to input three more. And after all that there was a totally separate encryption on it. It made him wonder, but without definitive proof he had no way of knowing if it were true, but her reaction was real enough.

"Hm…I wonder how she'll do in the next part?" Hojo pondered as he thought over it. All of the opponents were clones and he had done his best to make them extra special. Of course, the original purpose for this was something different altogether, but since he considered them failures anyway this would be a good way to dispose of them. He turned around and glanced at the two chambers each with a subject inside. "Your mother is doing quite well, but unfortunately, she won't be finding you at the end of this little game. I'd never stand a chance at this point. I suppose I should do more to prepare for the inevitable." He started laughing and it almost seemed as if each subject twitched at the sound.

"What kind of game are you playing at?" Rufus said suddenly. Hojo immediately paused and looked at him curiously. He wondered how long he had been there. Rufus gazed up at the subjects and frowned. "They look so much like _him_."

"Yes, but I can see her in them as well. They're just as defiant as she is!" Hojo said frowning a little. Rufus just began to laugh.

"Ha! Serves you right. I suppose it doesn't matter either way at this point. I have more important matters to deal with. That is also something you should be doing isn't it? How much longer until things are ready?"

"Oh that. I have the others working on that. It seems to be going according to plan. It's really quite simple." Hojo said almost absently.

"Oh, by the way. You should be very careful in this game of yours. If she decides to come here after you…hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. She will destroy you." Rufus said as he left the lab. Hojo just frowned and shook his head. He was not concerned about that. He knew she would never think to come here. Hiding them here from her was perfect and he knew it. He almost laughed at his genius. He then got back to business. He had time before they reached Banora and he was still a little worried about that. This part was going to be a bit sketchy. The Genesis clone he had created was much better than the Angeal version. However, he like Genesis himself, had a problem with authority.

"I suppose I should have tried harder to rectify that, but it's too late now. Who knows if he'll really do as I've asked or not. I guess if it fits in his own interest he will, but still…Genesis…." He trailed off as he went about altering the settings on the chambers. They were ready to transfer to the room below and he had to set them carefully. Waking them both at once had almost proved to be a very costly mistake for him. With everyone working on the cannon he had less help around and they were not weaklings much like their parents.

* * *

**Banora**

Banora was mostly destroyed. Only a tree and a few remnants of buildings still stood, but there was a large hole leading underneath the city. It looked quite ominous, but it seemed the only place to go. I took a few deep breaths and then headed inside. It reminded me of deepground if only slightly. It was dark, wet, cold, and quiet. For the most part there was almost nothing there at all. Until we arrived at a fairly large room with a pedestal with seven round depressions in it.

"What's this?" I said looking at it.

"Perhaps it is the key to opening this door?" Vincent said. "Looks like we have no choice." Vincent said reading the inscription.

"Seven materia." I repeated. "Why can't this be done for us already." I said sighing. We left the room and backtracked to the beginning. If we were to find them all we would have to look everywhere. This underground cavern area was huge. It looked much larger than the town above might have been and I began to wonder why this place was even here. Who could have made this place and why?

We found the materia fairly easily and we noticed parts of a poem on stone tablets. They too must have significance, but I was not all that sure it had anything to do with us. "I recall this poem. It is Loveless. A play was also made for it if I recall. I never saw it, but many people would quote it from time to time." Vincent said. "I believe I heard Cid mention it once as well."

"Didn't he say he fell asleep during it and only caught the ending?" Red said. Vincent merely nodded.

"Loveless…Genesis would quote it. Sephiroth told me it annoyed him." I said thinking. _Did he ever quote it around me? I don't remember._ We started hearing footsteps. They sounded heavy and slow. Like it was hard for them to walk. "Over there." I said directing their attention to the sound. "Someone's coming."

"There's two. One sounds like a machine." Vincent stated. The machines steps made it hard to hear the other, but there was someone else with it.

"Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess  
We seek it thus, and take to the sky  
Ripples form on the water's surface  
The wandering soul knows no rest."

We heard this coming from the passage and as they came to the end we saw them. A large Shinra weapon with Genesis at its side. He looked different than I remembered. His hair was white and his clothes tattered. _What happened to him?_

"Tell me. Did you ever hear this poem?" He asked me. I shook my head. "One more regret I suppose." He replied. "Oh, well. You'll hear every word before it's over." He said.

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"This is how we look when close to the end of degredation. However, do not think me weak." He said. "The real Genesis lay sleeping somewhere in this world waiting. I hope you get to see him again."

"Hmph. So what now?"

"Let's play. Oh, I should tell you...I'm not the only Genesis clone here. So, don't think it's over if I die." He said smiling. He had one large gunblade. And with that weapon helping him it might even be a challenge. _I've never fought Genesis before so I have no idea how strong he is._ I thought to myself. We all got ready for the fight and the weapon attacked first and we scattered to avoid the bullets.

"Hmph. This should be easy." Vincent stated. "I'll handle the weapon. You deal with Genesis." He said to us. We just nodded and leapt out of hiding. All of us moving and attacking. Red was on the defensive for the time being. Genesis fired a few times at us, but he did not seem all that serious. The way he acted was almost conflicted. Vincent quickly moved around the room making his way to the weapon.

"I heard you defeated Angeal." Genesis said. He slowly walked towards me with a strange smile on his face. "I bet it was hard for you to kill him."

"Shut up!" I said getting closer. "Like you would know!"

"You are right. I've killed, but knew none of them. Even if I had I doubt that I would care." He said smiling more. Our attention shifted as the weapon Genesis had brought began to make some noise. It collapsed and broke apart. Vincent stood almost triumphantly on top of it. "Well, that was quick." He commented.

"This will be too!" I said behind him. One shot was enough. He turned around slowly and tried to lift his gunblade. "This is pretty satisfying." I said.

"Hmph. Well, it will only get harder from here." He said. He stumbled and dropped the gunblade. We all just watched. Vincent joined us. "Here." He said throwing us a bag. "That's two of them." Then he fell and stopped moving altogether. I let out a sigh and we moved on.

_When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end  
The goddess descends from the sky  
Wings of light and dark spread afar  
She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting_

These words were transcribed on a large stone tablet in an empty room. This whole place seemed so quiet for some reason, but there so many things living here. We all felt it. "These words seem to have meaning for this place tho I'm not really sure why. Perhaps that poem has some truth in it." Vincent stated.

"I think you're right, but I don't think anyone knows what this place is really for." I replied.

"There is no hate, only joy  
For you are beloved by the goddess  
Hero of the dawn, Healer of worlds

Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul  
Pride is lost  
Wings stripped away, the end is nigh."

"Where are you?" I shouted.

"Here." He said flying down at us. "Years ago Zack came here. He wanted to stop Genesis. He claimed that much of the events that occurred years before were the result of his doing. I don't know if that is true or not."

"Why tell us that?"

"You were friends weren't you?" He said tilting his head slightly. I merely nodded. "Well then, it would please you to know that he did manage to leave here alive. I was told that he died just outside of Midgar.

_I already know this…but what is his point?_

"Perhaps the four of them truly did embody the meaning in this poem. It was always _his_ favorite. I suppose much of it was just fantasy. The possibilities were limitless. What could it have meant? Was the gift of the Goddess something we humans could possess?" He said almost thinking.

"Who knows…perhaps we'll never know. Maybe it is just fantasy." I said.

"Perhaps. From what I know and was told by the last of our cloned brethren, Hojo is watching this with quite splendor. Shall we give him a nice show?" Genesis asked.

"Hmph. Whatever!" I said lunging at him. I had grown tired of his voice and how he was acting. _Does he really see himself as being so high and mighty? Even after being defeated so many times?_

"Don't underestimate me!" Genesis said as he used his magic. Fire engulfed everyone. At the same time he grabbed me by the arm and used a second spell. "Sleep now. It'll end soon." He flew off before the others could do anything making sure to keep them preoccupied. Monsters appeared out of nowhere attacking from all sides.

* * *

"Damn him!" Hojo slammed his hands on the table. "I knew it! Even as a clone he still retains those feelings. If only I had been able to erase that. Perhaps then he would have been more cooperative…and I was hoping to see the ending." Hojo looked at the screen and only saw the ending of the fight between the monsters and the rest of her party. He did see someone he remembered if a bit vaguely. "I know him don't I? Why can't I recall?" Hojo stated as he watched. "Oho! That man…hahahaha! It really is him. The young Turk who so wanted to save her…and ended up becoming that…I guess they were the ones who played my game then. Not bad at all." He said leaning back in his chair.

He sighed and turned towards the empty chambers. He had since moved them below with a heavy sedative. _I wonder what Genesis will do next. I can't imagine her losing to him._

* * *

"Wake up." Someone said. For a moment it sounded like back then. Someone was always telling me to wake up. As if sleeping was bad for me. _Who is it now?_ I thought. _Who's calling me?_

"Wake up!" An identical voice said almost right after, but this came with pain. "Come now, Lilia. Don't you remember us?"

"G-Genesis." I said waking up. "Where are we?"

"Oh. Not far. However, if those two want to save you they'll need a way in. Perhaps you could give them a chance." He said to the other clone. He merely nodded, smiled, and left. "Well, doesn't this bring back memories?" He asked coming over to me as he did I struggled and realized something. _I'm lightheaded. I'm naked, and strapped down to something. What is he doing this for? Think! Think!_

"What do you want?"

"What do I want?" He laughed at that statement as he ran a hand up my inner thigh. I jumped at the touch. "Ha. There it is. That fear." He said watching me intently. "Right now you can't fight back and all you can do is wait for them to come get you. I'm sure they will." He said smiling widely.

"I don't understand what _you_ want. Genesis did this for a different reason. What's yours?"

"Mine. Hm. No reason really. There's a feeling I have and this was all I could think about. I'm not really sure why, but I really don't care. Besides…I imagine that Hojo is going crazy right now! I'd love to see his face right now.

_Sadly me too._ I was thinking.

"You too, huh." He said suddenly closer than I had expected. He was leaning over me so close I could feel his breath. "Tell me. What was it like? Were you afraid?" He said his hand going higher.

"Stop…." I said struggling. There was little I could do. In this state I was vulnerable. I could not even seem to call her up to help me.

"Heh. What can you do? Wait. Hope. Pray." He said I felt his hand sliding up my body and caressing me. I shivered at the feeling and looked away trying to shut him out. "Oh. You think you can ignore me?" He said. I didn't move or respond to him, but closed my eyes. He brushed my hair back and I felt his hand lightly touching my cheek. After that I felt his lips on my neck. On the inside I was screaming, but I couldn't give him the satisfaction. "You're quite strong. But this is familiar…hmmm…perhaps something else?" Still I gave him nothing.

Again his hand moved along my body. _He's just looking for a response. He'll give up eventually…hopefully…._ Lower…lower…his hand moved until it rested between my legs pausing. I heard him laughing, but at that moment I was so tense. I was holding my breath hoping that something would happen and he would move away.

"Still nothing, but you're shaking…." He said laughing. I just noticed that I was. I was trying so hard that my entire body shook. I barely noticed my breathing and forced myself to breathe in. At the same time he moved his hand. My eyes flew open and instantly I struggled against the chains trying to break them. "So that does it hmm?" He said backing away laughing. "Hahahaha! That was perfect. What fire you have."

"I'll kill you!" I shouted as I struggled. I pulled hard on one of them and I felt it starting to give. The sudden adrenaline boost was helping a lot. He was not afraid or even worried at the time. He had turned his attention away.

"Seems they've gotten a little bit closer to saving you." He stated. I said nothing, but continued struggling to break the straps and chains placed on me. "Go ahead and struggle. It'll give us both something to do while we wait." He said. His demeanor suddenly changed.

_Why? Why is he acting like that all of the sudden? I don't get it._

* * *

After the fight Vincent called the others to let them know they might need some help. Lilia had been kidnapped by a clone. "WHAT? He took her. Hm. Well, we're in Mideel right now checking up on Cloud and Tifa. We'll be there soon just let us know how things are going. Might come and get you." Cid told him. He closed the phone and moved on.

"I hope she'll be alright." Red XIII said.

"She's strong, but even this will be a challenge for her." _Things may only get worse after this. Especially for her._ He was thinking. They wandered through the ruins looking for more of the materia, but both of them knew that they would be short by 2. Lilia had them with her. However, this was resolved for them. They had been finding things of hers. Her weapon, materia, clothes. "He stripped everything from her so she couldn't use any of it against him." The Goddess materia was also among the possessions. Both of them were thinking along the same lines. She was alone with him and quite vulnerable. "We shouldn't waste time." Vincent said running into the next room.

Genesis greeted them. His wing outstretched with a large smile on his face made him look quite mad. He smiled more and laughed. "Don't worry she's alive. I'm here to give you the opportunity to save her."

"My friend, do you fly away now?  
To a world that abhors you and I?  
All that awaits you is a somber morrow  
No matter where the winds may blow

My friend, your desire  
Is the bringer of life, the gift of the goddess

Even if the morrow is barren of promises  
Nothing shall forestall my return" 

* * *

"Even if the morrow is barren of promises  
Nothing shall forestall my return!"

Genesis stressed the last sentence. He seemed to believe every word. "They're getting closer." He said. "Should be here soon." He said. He opened the book again and continued to read.

My friend, the fates are cruel  
There are no dreams, no honor remains  
The arrow has left the bow of the goddess

My soul, corrupted by vengeance  
Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey  
In my own salvation  
And your eternal slumber

Legend shall speak  
Of sacrifice at world's end  
The wind sails over the water's surface  
Quietly, but surely"

"Tell me, what do you think of it?" He asked me.

"It's sad."

"Yes…sad…." He said slowly. We both looked up as the doors began to open. Vincent and Red stood there apprehensively waiting for whatever was going to come at them next. Genesis closed the book and put it down replacing it with a weapon. "Finally, the end draws nigh." He said as he got ready.

Both of them looked at me and then him both showing disgust for his actions. They both came in charging and ready to fight. I heard other voices behind them. _Is everyone here? _I was thinking. Suddenly I could move. The straps and chains were gone. I looked around and saw Cid and Yuffie standing beside me. "Thought you could use some help." Cid said smiling.

"Here are your things." Yuffie said handing me a bundle of things. I did my best to put them on, but even now I was still a little fuzzy.

"He drugged me…." I told them in almost a whisper. Cid gave me some support and attempted to guide me away.

"Look out!" Yuffie shouted. Cid fell and I stumbled trying not to join him.

"Where are you going?" Genesis said grabbing me. I could feel it. She wanted to come out so I nodded. Genesis didn't know what that meant, but suddenly he was not so happy and smiling anymore. He looked at me and there was fear. "You're…." He didn't get to finish. She killed him and smiled at me, but he wasn't quite finished. He started laughing.

"Even if the morrow…is barren of promises  
Nothing…shall forestall my return  
To become the dew…that quenches the land  
To spare the sands…the seas…the skies  
I offer thee…this…silent…sacrifice"

He whispered as he reached for something unseen. With that he died. We all sighed with relief. "Well…that's over." I said. "What about the next clue. Did you find that?" Vincent was looking around the room and when he found the Loveless book he picked it up and opened it flipping through the pages. It automatically turned to the poem. Genesis had quoted it and he wondered if maybe that is where he might put it. His instinct was correct. A piece of paper had been inserted right after the poem.

"Nibelheim…." Vincent read aloud. I clenched my fist thinking that could only mean one thing. Sephiroth. "What do you think we'll find there?" Vincent asked me. I said nothing right away.

"Isn't that where all of this with Sephiroth began. Do you think a clone of him will be there?" Cid said. Everyone nodded then looked at me.

"I'm ok…but…I…don't know if I can fight him…." I said shaking my head.

"And there's also other things to worry about." Cid said thinking about Cloud, and Shinra.

"And what if all of this is for nothing?" Vincent asked. He was looking at me. "Should we even bother to go?"

"I don't know. Can we really let a Sephiroth Clone run around doing whatever he wants?" Cid said. "Could cause a lot of trouble. And what about Sephiroth? I'm sure he knows about all of this too. What would he do about it? Couldn't he easily use the clone against us?"

"I think he knows, but it's hard to say. With the barrier on the crater he can't leave nor can we enter." I said. "I wonder if he really knows what's going on. If he did…what would he do?" I said mostly to myself.

"Guess there's only one thing to do then. We can't afford to have two Sephiroth's out there." Cid said. Mostly everyone agreed. They were all concerned about me and I knew it.

"I think…I'll lie down for a while." I said leaving.

"I hope she's ok." Yuffie said sounding worried. I heard them talking behind me on the way. They thought that I was either going to make myself sick over this or something worse. They were afraid that I would lose control of myself and they were afraid of what that would be like.

**Author:** Phew! This chapter took forever….

Sorry for taking so long. It's been hectic and is going to stay that way unfortunately. Anyway, hope you liked and just wait and see what happens next. I kind of like that I'm really not sure how things are going to go in the story. Makes it better I think. All I really have are ideas and the ending of course. Also, I have been considering making a second story to continue this one when I'm done. We'll see. Before doing that I should maybe attend to my other story….we'll see.


	89. Treasure Hunt part 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

Ch. 89 Treasure Hunt part 3

Sephiroth stood in the crater quietly listening to the planet. The ebb and flow of the lifestream told him things here and there that were going on. He could not physically leave that place due to the barrier and because of Holy. Besides, Jenova would be displeased with him. He was curious. He knew that they would be coming. _They'll come to try and stop me, but she…will she fight?_ He thought. Many memories had returned to him. Many of them very intimate moments between them. At first he had listened to Jenova in thinking that they were not real, however, that changed.

These were not false memories. She was not capable of that and he did not believe that he would make them up. Jenova seemed to hate them so obviously it had nothing to do with her. So it made him wonder. How had he forgotten? _What happened to make me forget? Why did I forget?_ He wondered.

Sephiroth listened to the lifestream and the planet and heard something that startled him if only for a moment. He had noticed that for whatever reason Cloud and his friends had been moving around a lot the last few days. Today was no different. Cloud remained in one place while the others split and went different ways. _What are they doing?_ He had been wondering. The whispers were faintly telling him the story, but they seemed reluctant. He heard familiar names from years ago. People he had not forgotten, but had thought he would never encounter again. Angeal, and Genesis. _What do they have to do with their group? What is going on?_

Sephiroth listened for days without moving before Jenova persisted that he stop. She grew tired of his newfound obsession. Now that he was revitalized he could move more freely without her assistance. Now he had power. The fact that he was focusing on them, and more importantly on her, upset her. _Once again she's a problem. If only she would die._ Jenova thought. It was a pleasant thought for her. With her gone, Sephiroth would be hers to do as she please, no more would he think of her and be confused. She had thought that when he decided to forget her things would change, but she now saw the true impact she had on him. He could never truly forget her or his feelings. That was very apparent to her. All she could do now is remove the girl.

_And what of the consequences?_ Sephiroth said to her. She had not even noticed that he had heard her. They had heard some of the things they talked about. Her death triggering the end of life itself. It seemed far-fetched. It was not much of a deterrent for her though. In a way that was her goal. She moved from planet to planet snuffing out life as she went. However, even she had another motive.

_Don't tell me you believe that? Besides, does it really matter? Our goal is the same. We both wish to leave this world._

_It's strange, but I use to have a reason. Now…I cannot seem to remember why I wanted to do that other than the fact that this planet no longer accepts me. Did it ever I wonder?_ He said.

_You wanted to start over on a new world. We want the same thing. To leave this wretched world behind and forge a new home for ourselves. I could never do that without you, nor you I._ Sephiroth laughed slightly and merely nodded. It did sound like him. It was something he wanted. However, recently he found those thoughts changing.

_That woman…why…why does she…affect me so?_ It was a common question for him now and a perplexing one. The recent activity had her at the center. She was doing something apart from the rest of the group. He knew that Shinra was planning a way to break the barrier and even an attempt to destroy meteor, however, he knew it was futile. Meteor could not be stopped by them. Only Holy stood a chance and here where he was closest to the core of the world where Holy slept he could keep it in check.

But her activity had nothing to do with either. The majority of the group was focused on Shinra and their activities. However, she seemed to be chasing something. What he had no idea. When Angeals name was mentioned he saw a glimpse of her crouched on the ground crying. The sight made his heart skip a beat, and instantly brought up images of her that he knew were memories. He found himself in the same position as her clutching his chest. He felt no pain, but it affected him more than he expected.

When he heard Genesis' name it brought images of her in pain. He wanted to see what was happening, but that was limited. Luckily for him they were in a place that was close to the lifestream. Something Genesis said bothered him. He did remember going there once with Zack on a mission, but nothing untoward had really happened. Though he did remember only catching the end of the fight. However, something about that time was missing. When he learned that Genesis had made off with her he felt apprehension. He had no idea what that meant. He felt…worried. Something about it felt so familiar. _Has this happened before?_ He thought. 

* * *

_I will find her mother. No matter what._ He said making sure that she understood what he meant. She got quiet and backed away for a while letting him search. When he could not find anything he found himself looking around her bed. He did notice that her cover was gone. _I guess they took that as well... How considerate. _He thought hating them. He sat down on her bed and sighed. He found himself looking under her bed. He knew that she had a little hiding place for her drawing and such. It was the only thing he had of her at the moment.

He looked through them all. He found himself smiling every once in a while. Something she drew or wrote made him miss her, but it also made him laugh. After a while he was finished looking through her drawings and he just sat on her bed. He felt something he had never felt before. A tear ran down his cheek and he did not even bother to wipe it away. It was perfect for how he felt now. It was only one tear. Something he had never done before.

"Strange...I didn't know I could cry."

* * *

Sephiroth found himself on his hands and knees heaving. That memory was painful. It made him remember something else he had forgotten. He clenched his fists and slammed them on the ground several times. _Dammit! That bastard!_

Sephiroth then felt a sense of relief when she was found and not hurt. And he managed to get a hint to what they were doing. Next they would go to Nibelheim and he wondered what was happening. So, he moved ahead of them and searched Nibelheim for anything that might be related. What he found surprised him.

"A clone…of me?" He said surprised. "Mother? What is all this?"

_I don't know. Perhaps it is merely something _he_ has done._ She stated. He understood what she meant. Not many knew how to make clones of people. Genesis and Hollander had been a few, but they had stolen the research. Hojo was the only likely suspect.

"But why? What's going on? What is he doing?" Sephiroth asked. He wanted to know so he reached out to the clone. "Tell me…what are you doing there?" He asked him. His clone looked around surprised. He saw no one and Sephiroth understood that though he was a clone he was nothing like him. "You are my clone…so tell me."

_You are the real Sephiroth. Hojo asked me to do this. To wait here for that women._

"But why?"

_It's a game. One that even if she wins she will lose._

"A game? And what is the prize supposed to be."

_The children, but I was told nothing. I imagine that he keeps them close to him or hidden away somewhere he perceives as safe. Hmph. We will see I suppose._ The clone said.

"Children?"

_You didn't know? Interesting._ He said smiling a little.

"Hmph. Don't give me that! Even from here I could kill you."

_That's right. You're in the Crater. Hm. I think this is foolish anyway. I doubt that I'll win the fight. She's not weak and even Hojo believes I will lose._ He said sounding annoyed by his own statement.

"You will. Even I can tell, but it won't be easy for her. She will be conflicted. And I have a favor to ask…." Sephiroth said. This got his clones attention. The real Sephiroth wanted him to do something for him. He didn't mind. In fact, he felt that it would make things more interesting for him. If he is to die he hoped his last moments would at least be interesting. 

* * *

I lay down and think about many things. One of the most prominent things in my mind were those six months that I was held captive. It is something that I could never forget, nor forgive. Genesis had tortured me, experimented on me, and I only remember half of my time there. For the most part I was kept asleep or drugged. Genesis was not taking any chances then that I would fight back. _He did the same this time too, but not even he went that far…did he? Would I even know?_ I was thinking.

Many of them passed my room, but said nothing. Vincent was the only one who lingered. Everyone else, just looked in and pitied me, but none of them knew what to say or do right now. So much was going on. We all had little time to dwell on anything. "So what will you do if we don't find them."

"Cry…." I whispered. "What else can I do?"

"I guess you're right." He said. "But remember that we'll all be here for you."

"Thanks, Vincent. You really are a good friend." I said smiling. He left, but the frown soon returned. "Sorry, Vincent, but…it's not all that easy. I will find them." I whispered. "Please be safe." I said closing my eyes. _I guess all that stuff happened while I was missing. They never did tell me any of it. I guess he thought I'd been through enough._

**Nibelheim**

I almost leapt off the airship when we landed. Soon after they were flying off to deal with other matters that required attention. I was on a mission. I reached out and found him and b-lined to him. _I'll try talking to him first. Maybe something will be there. Maybe._ The clone was waiting just inside the mansion.

"I've been waiting for you. He has a message for you." He said to us.

"Sephiroth?" He nodded.

"I told him what's been going on. Apparently, he didn't know anything. But isolated in that place it's not quite so easy for him to."

"What's the message?" I said shaking a little bit. I was nervous for some reason.

"He says..." He paused for a second. Like it was strange for him to be doing this. It sort of was so I understood. He moved in closer to us and spoke low. "I don't remember everything, and at this point it's hard to decide if it's real or not." He said pausing again. "I don't really know what that means. I have no real memories of my own except for this small existence that I've had for the past five years." The clone said.

"Is that all?" He shook his head.

"You confuse me. What you said to me at the crater. I can't understand it. All I can think is that you knew this would happen. You knew what I would do. Is that true?" The question made me hesitate. _What should I tell him?_ I remained silent so he just shook his head and continued. "I know about them. This one doesn't know where they are and in my current position I can't exactly look for them myself." He paused again. "He's right. I was never told. All of this, I imagine is simply a means of Hojo performing another experiment…and taking out the trash."

"I see. So then fighting you is pointless." Vincent stated.

"Yes." He replied nodding his head. "However, I would ask that you kill me. It's a much better fate than what's happening to me now." He said. "Hojo is attempting to clean up after himself. And the first things to go for him are failures and whatever else he doesn't need."

The way he said it and the way he looked at us made me believe him. He was right. What kind of life could he really have? His main alternatives would end in death. Of course, he could disappear and live quietly. It was just a thought, but I was considering it.

"I…I don't know if I can do that." I told him. "Sephiroth might not understand yet, but I love him. You may just be a clone, but you're just like him. It's…hard…to think about." I said shaking my head.

"I see. Then you're weak. If you can't kill me…then you can't beat me." He said. But it sounded like the real Sephiroth.

"You don't get it. I need you! Now more than ever!" I said shouting while a few tears ran down my cheek. Before I knew it he was there wiping them away. He looks at me and what he was doing and paused almost confused.

"Why did I…?" He stepped back shaking his head and turned away.

"You really are confusing. What did you mean? You need me?" He asked slightly looking back.

"You know what they want don't you? All this time we've been fighting his followers. They're strong, but they'll run out. When that happens he'll have to come for me himself. When that happens…I know we can't handle him. I think…you might be the only one who stands a chance."

"You want me to help you?" He asked. "Laughable." He said.

"I thought you'd say that." I said sadly. "It's not like I can ask you to do it. Right now…you're…."

"The enemy. As are you, and yet…these…memories…." He said covering his face slightly with one hand.

"What do you remember?" I asked him.

He drew his sword. "Fight me." He said smiling at us. Red and Vincent got ready, but I stood there. "Come now. If you don't at least defend yourself then you'll die here. Then I suppose we'll find out if that story is true." He said. I realized that it was Sephiroth talking. If he was watching then there really was no telling exactly how this was going to end. He could kill us, let us live, or kill his clone. But something about this was different.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" I asked him.

"Don't tell me you're worried." He said smiling. I shook my head smiling back. _He's not serious at all. I can tell._ "Then let's get started." He said getting into position. So I too prepared to fight. _Just think of this as a sparring match. We've done that before. I've never won though._ I was thinking.

He attacked first moving so fast I almost missed it. He came right at me and I just barely managed to block him. We both stood there at a stalemate. _He's fast, but he's not as strong as Sephiroth is._ "Having fun yet?" He said smiling. The way he was looking at me reminded me of before. When he remembered me. So I smiled and pushed him back. He leapt away just in time to dodge Red, and swatted aside a few bullets with his sword. At the same time he fired a spell at Vincent forcing him to dodge.

Red and I teamed up and he got in close while I kept most of his attention on me. Vincent took the time to move behind him so at least he could not see what he was doing, but Sephiroth was very wary of his back. He turned as Red jumped and for a moment we thought he was going to skewer him, but he paused for a moment and one hand was on his head as if he were in pain, but he did make sure to knock Red aside to avoid being injured. "What's wrong?"

"Hmph…he's interfering." He said. "Guess he won't let me kill you." He said straightening up. He smiled and took a deep breath briefly closing his eyes. The next moment his wing came out. "If I am to die, then I'll go fighting." He said. "Get serious, otherwise, you'll lose this fight." He said calmly with his eyes closed.

Red had recovered and was running up behind him he leapt up into the air claws bared. Sephiroth took one deep breath and turned around and grabbed Red right out of the air. He held him by the neck and his left hand was poised. He was ready to fight if we came near, but he had our friend. What were we supposed to do? "Want him?" He said smiling. Neither of us moved. We both knew what he meant. He raised his arm lifting him higher. I could see that it hurt. He was trying to breathe. We braced ourselves and so did he.

The next moment he turned and threw Red at Vincent who quickly caught him, sat him down, and got back into position, but by that time there was nothing he could do. While he caught Red, Sephiroth jumped up and attacked me. I was fast enough to block, but he was no longer simply playing around. It was not really his style anyway. He knocked me back and I slammed against the wall. He came at me again before I could recover. The next moment I heard wood splitting very close to me. Just above me his sword rested. He was kneeling before me with wide eyes and he was gasping for air hand on his chest.

"Sephiroth?" I whispered.

"Hmph." Was his only response. His eyes narrowed and his entire body started to shake.

"What is it? Say something."

"You win." He said through clenched teeth.

"Wha-…" He collapsed onto the ground and my first instinct was to grab him. "Sephiroth!" I said very concerned.

"Those eyes…aren't meant for me…." He said.

"Is it him?" He merely nodded.

"Not just him." He said. I realized suddenly that there was blood on him. "Not really fatal…but in my condition…and thanks to _him_ I don't have long."

"Condition?"

"I'm a failure to Hojo because my body has a limit." He replied. "The degredation is something he could not stop. From what I recall of it all, he did mention that Genesis somehow found a way to halt it, but it was a secret he never uncovered."

"I see…."

"Sephiroth, knew what I was trying to do. However, there's no way I could win this fight. Your shot was pure luck you know." He said looking at Vincent.

"Hmph." Was his only response.

He looked back at me and raised a hand up to wipe the tears away. "I hope it never comes to this, Sephiroth. I would give anything to help you, but unless you realize that what you're doing has no meaning, I can't." He stared at me for a moment and frowned. I felt the difference this time.

"You don't understand either. It's not that simple." He said.

"Yes…it is." I responded. "Why is it so hard? Why does everyone make it difficult for no reason!" I said frustrated. "I won't lose you! Not to _HER!"_

"What?" He was surprised. "You mean…Jenova?"

"Who else?" I said cringing at her name. "She's a liar! She's lying to you! Do you really think she'd still need you after meteor hits? No. She'll repeat the same thing she's always done. When I could hear her sometimes I had dreams about that. The things she's done…the worlds she's visited and destroyed…I won't forgive her. I'll never forgive her for what she's done…especially to you!"

"To me?" Sephiroth was going to say more, but he started coughing. I looked at him worried. "I'll die soon." He whispered. "Don't feel bad. This was only a game, and someone had to lose."

"Explain to me how this is winning?" I said hanging my head.

"You never had a chance to win this one. You should have just ignored it, but you couldn't." He paused and held his chest as he coughed. When I saw blood come up I knew that it was bad. "I don't blame you for trying…but Hojo would never allow something he can use get away from him."

"He lost us." I replied. Suddenly I felt him change. Sephiroth had lost his connection with his clone.

"Hmph…what's this?" He said looking past me.

"What? What is it?"

"Why?" He said shaking his head.

_It's time. I'll show you the way, ok._

"Who? Aeris?" I said looking around. _I can't see anything!_ Sephiroth smiled briefly and then closed his eyes. His body started to change. _What's happening to him?_

_Don't feel bad Lilia. It's ok, so don't give up._

"Aeris?" Hearing her voice made me cry. I looked down and Sephiroth, or rather his clone, had disintegrated into dust. "He's gone…." I whispered. "Now what do I do…we're out of time…." I covered my face. "I knew, but…I just…."

"Lilia, its alright. We all hoped that maybe we'd find something." Red said brushing against me. He was trying to comfort me.

"There was a small amount of hope that he might know where they were, but Hojo was just playing a game with you." Vincent said. "Besides, we could not simply ignore these clones either."

"I know!" I shouted. "It's just….I…." I felt weak all of the sudden. I heard their voices calling me, but my head hurt and I could not see. "What's….going on…?" I blacked out and woke up back on the airship, but the dream I had made me scared.

"There you are. Glad to see you're ok. We were starting to get worried about you." Cid said.

"What happened?"

"You've been out for almost two days." He told me. I noticed that he was not smoking. It seemed odd to me. "Listen, you got yourself so worked up that you made yourself sick. This is what we were worried about, but it's not like we could've stopped you. We're your friends, Lilia. We'll always be there for you." He said.

"So how did things go for you guys? How is Cloud?"

"Not much different from last time. He's…the same. Tifa said she's not sure how long he'll be like this. Doctor said its up to him."

"I see…."

"Listen, we're headed back there now so why don't you just rest ok." He said leaving. I closed my eyes and cried a little bit. These past few days have been extremely hectic for me. So much has happened in a short amount of time. _Why? Why is this so hard…?_ I thought. _That dream. What was that? Was it really just a dream? Or something else?_

**Author:** Well, he remembers, maybe not everything but that's not the important part here. Well this little trilogy is finished. Oh, the things I have planned for this story. Am I excited? Yes. Might be the high from going to Oni-con and meeting Nobuo! Still haven't gotten over that yet.


	90. When a Planet Dies

**Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!**

Ch. 90 When a Planet Dies

For a few seconds there was only darkness and no sound. Light crept in as the sun rose, but it was strange. Suddenly there was nothing but noise. The ground cracked and shook everywhere; volcanoes simultaneously erupted sending hot lava spraying on unsuspecting towns; seas raged; winds, tornadoes, hurricanes, sprouted up all over. The sky changed from a once clear blue to a reddish gray. An event unheard of on any world, at least by those of the living. It was like something inside the planet was convulsing violently. People ran from falling buildings out into the elements only to find it was also a dangerous place. Violent winds whipped around building carrying different objects through streets, buildings or whatever else was in its path. Cars moved on their own causing them to become more deadly projectiles. Along with the wind came something else. Extreme heat. It melted light poles and burned flesh as it hit things only seeming to get hotter as time passed. Those who did stay inside buildings found little protection from these strange events.

People screamed and huddled together trying to protect one another only to die together. No one, it seemed, would survive this. The world was falling apart at the seams. No one knew why this was happening and many of them at this point did not care. They just wanted it to stop because after seeing so many people die horrifically and realizing that they were not ready to die that was their only wish. Of course, there was also another thought that some had. Let us die quickly without suffering. Some were even granted that wish. Those however, who ventured out into the burning hot winds found themselves dying a slower death. One that meant great pain as flesh and bone alike burned and melted before their eyes. The sensation truly only lasted a few minutes, but something like that never feels quick.

The heat that suddenly surrounded the planet in this violent wind added with the heat from beneath the surface boiled the water as it moved. Smaller groups of water simply bubbled and evaporated only making it hotter, but the oceans moved in on the land violently as the earth shook creating a new horror for those on islands or near water. The water was so hot the tsunami's that crashed into land hitting people also caused burns. The land had turned violent and like many peoples they blamed it on many things, but all of this was irrelevant. There was only one true cause to these events.

That was when I realized that this is what they were doing. This is what happened to a planet when it dies. This is what it was like. It was frightening to see and feel. My hands shook and tears rolled down my check only to dry up. My hair was burning and there were marks on my skin and clothes from the wind and heat. It was taking more time than everyone else to get to me, but I was not unaffected. It was strange that at first I did not take notice to this. I guess watching others go through it was shocking enough, but to feel it like they did. To watch and feel yourself suffer like they had. It was…horrible. It was honestly the worst pain I had ever felt. Because of the heat all of the screams from when it started were gone. No one could scream anymore and I felt that as well. My insides were on fire from breathing in the heat.

_If this is really what it's like when a world dies I have to do something. But…why am I seeing this? Is this what could happen if I fail?_

I looked up and realized that the sky above me was clear, but it was like nighttime. It was mainly because the clouds mostly covered the light from the sun in the distance. But there was something odd about it too. The stars were going out one by one until there was a large black spot that slowly spread across the sky.

The heat was getting to me and I fell on the ground somehow facing the sky, but I could also see other people in the distance. All of them slowly being killed by the hot wind and various projectiles. The pain increased and I wanted to scream, but could not manage anything. For a brief moment I found myself wanting the sweat embrace of death if only to end the pain I felt. What was more; I also felt that if it came to this I would prefer it. It started me wondering something. Was this really just a dream or a vision of a possible future, or something else?

The sky started to go dark and for a moment I thought that the stars were coming back to life. It took a second for me to realize that the lights were not stars. They were small, green, and floated up into the sky like snow falling the wrong direction. There were so many lights and as I looked around I realized that they were coming from the planet, the people, plants, anything living. The more they gathered the more it started to look like a river of light. _Is that what I think it is?_ I realized that it was also coming from me. _I'm fading too. Joining the sea of souls making their way to the Abyss._

For a moment I felt no fear of dying. I was honestly relieved. Soon all the pain would be gone. 

* * *

On the airship everyone gathered to talk about what was going on and what they were going to do. Lilia was out and she had a fever. After all the running around none of them were really surprised. The way she was acting after the second clone told them enough. Plus Cloud was still out of commission and from what Tifa was saying it was not going to change any time soon.

"Well, all we can do is take care of her til she wakes up." Cid said sighing. He was honestly worried about her and Cloud. Vincent had filled them in. When they brought her back passed out he was a little bit worried that something worse had happened. "Kid's going to give me a damn heart attack." He said under his breath.

"What now?" Yuffie asked. A long silence had grown between everyone and that was something she could not stand.

"We move on." Cid said. "At the moment there doesn't seem to be much to do but wait. I don't like that, but I have some things I can do in the meantime to keep myself busy. What you do is up to you. Someone should look in on her every once in a while too." He said thinking. At a time like this he would normally be exited. It was a chance to tinker around with his airship. But he was worried so the excitement was at a minimum.

After what he said everyone dispersed all thinking about pretty much the same thing. Red was the one who went to check on Lilia. He had nowhere else to go and she looked like she was in pain. Sweat beaded on her face and he did his best to put a wet rag on her to help, but his first few attempts just covered her whole face. He finally decided to try folding it first, which was more difficult than he cared to admit, and then flopped it on her forehead. He felt rather proud of himself for that. Behind him he heard a little "hmph" but no one was there when he looked. He then curled up and napped next to the bed waiting patiently. 

* * *

Sephiroth stood in the crater frowning. He had read his clones thoughts and he knew what he wanted, but he also knew how he intended to do that. A part of him was ok with this, but the other part of him suddenly started to scream at him. This feeling actually frightened him. Jenova griped and moaned about all this. She was starting to see the side of him that she hated. The side of him that ignored her.

_You shouldn't let things like this bother you. Who cares if she gets hurt? As if he could kill her, however, you could. He's just a clone. A cheap imitation. None of this even matters!_

"Now, Mother, don't you sound a bit desperate?" Sephiroth commented. "Let me do this. There's precious little to do here, but think and wait."

_You should be thinking about how you're going to kill them! Even I am aware that Shinra is putting together a way inside this barrier we've created. What do you plan to do then. It's only there to delay them. We want them to think there's a way to stop us from doing this. Remember, our plan to leave this wretched planet behind and start over on a new world?_

"Yes, I remember." He replied. Even with this conversation going on he was still watching the goings on with his clone and Lilia. He could see through his eyes and they were getting fuzzy. He was dying much faster than he imagined. The look in her eyes and the tears made him wonder if she would cry like that for him. What his clone said also made him wonder. Was all that really for him? It all made him feel strange and this strangeness was only growing. It had been growing for quite some time. It was something he could not identify, nor could he ignore it.

Jenova simply watched and listened to him only chiming in when she felt he needed some guidance, but for the most part he ignored her and that was a growing concern of hers. Once again that woman had gotten into his head and was messing up everything. At first she had merely thought her an annoyance. Back then she was no threat, but overnight that had all changed. It changed when Sephiroth began to have feelings for her. She had laughed and scoffed at the girls feelings for him and never had she imagined that he would share them.

However, at the same time she could easily see how they could develop in those circumstances. Both had suffered the same fate together and with a lack of others to draw comfort from they went to each other. Sephiroth had been reluctant, but he was curious about her and the growing feelings in himself. Part of it was just growing up. Jenova now realized how foolish she had been to ignore this threat back then. She had dismissed it and even been foolish enough to believe that when she disappeared her problems were over. She had quickly stepped in to take over as his crutch thinking she had won. _There must be a way to stop this!_ She was thinking, but she was at a loss. 

* * *

When the stream of lights from the planet stopped flowing the sky grew bright green. So bright it was like the sun. It meant that all of the worlds were relinquishing their souls and that of their inhabitants. It was amazing how many of them there really were, and for the moment I was among them. The planet had started to crumble and burn as the wind thrashed the surface and the volcanoes began to fall apart exploding upon the land. The people were all dead so there was no one but the dead to witness its demise. All of the souls had joined a growing river of lights coming from other planets extending into space or so it seemed. There was suddenly a giant glow that surfaced from the planet just as it began to fall apart losing all stability that held it together. It moved slowly into the flow of souls and seemed to engulf them as it went.

Once engulfed the scenery went from a destructive one to a plain white one. All of the people that died flitted around in this space as mere lights but some, if they had the strength, could appear as they had before death. I too was one of them. They looked around lost. Everyone felt the movement around them. They were moving. Either being drawn somewhere or taken there, no one was quite sure.

There was one among them all that was very different. I wondered if they were even one of the peoples that had inhabited the planet at all. They were so different in appearance and essence. She was like a goddess among humans or the like. Her skin was pure and untarnished by anything even color. Her hair was long and beautiful and the clothes that she wore were very elegant and regal. A crown of sorts adorned her head and she stood there silently with her eyes closed as souls gathered around her in awe.

I moved forward and her demeanor changed. Her eyes opened and she looked at me with such sadness. For a moment neither of us moved or spoke. I stood there with the distinct feeling that I knew what she was, but for the moment it eluded me. She then smiled sadly and nodded to me. "You are the reason for all of this, however, you are the one who can change it. You've done it once before, now must be no different." She said. Her voice was silky and beautiful. As she spoke I noticed others watching her more intently.

"I didn't do anything! How? How do I stop this? How can I?"

"You've already seen the answer." She said. "Sometimes it's the smallest thing that can save the world." She said.

"Who are you?"

She just smiled in response and the white changed to black signifying that we had reached it. I turned to see the light from the Abyss and I realized that it looked different. It was larger than I remembered. _The souls coming here must have done that. _Once we collided with it everything went black. _Is this what it's like? Dark and quiet?_

After a while I heard different sounds. People were talking around me, but that soon faded and all I could hear was breathing.

**Author:** Well here it is. What a violent end to go through. I wonder what it really will be like when the world finally does end. I wonder if it would really be like that, but would anyone really be around for it?

Anyway, on another note I must say that I really do enjoy receiving flaming reviews. They're so much fun and make me want to write even more! I even updated my other story. Wasn't even sure I'd keep writing that one so I gotta say thanks! Thanks for getting me back into my stories. LOL!


	91. Resemblance of Wings

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 91 Resemblance of Wings

Scythe stood in the Abyss clenching his fists. For whatever reason, his pawns attempts failed to capture the girl. They had told him that even Sephiroth, who at the time was their enemy, had aided her. He was not altogether surprised by these events. He now knew the error of what he had done. He had believed that The Abyss had no choice in the matter, but all along it had a plan. He had been so unaware that he had actually fed into it. Even his very first attempt had been thwarted; and it was done by the dead souls wandering death that still had their minds intact. That had been a simple complication, but he soon learned of more complications along the way. The more this went on the more frustrated he became, and now, he was reaching his limit.

Only a few were left to see him slowly drifting towards rage. Glaed, Siren, and Simon watched him silently. Simon knew that soon his role would be over. He had seen it. He had also seen the truth, but even knowing that he also knew that it was too late to stop what had been done. In truth, he did not care what happened next. He had a bit role in this and soon it would be finished and the curtain would fall. Glaed and Siren were wondering what he would do next. How did he plan to get her away from them. They had never been able to drive a wedge between them. Not enough to dissolve the friendship they had. They protected her and then there was Sephiroth. In his current state it seemed he was even stronger than before. This was a problem. Even Glaed felt unsure of herself in fighting him. However, at the same time, it excited her.

Scythe had been thinking silently for quite some time. No one had even attempted to speak to him and that was a good thing. His mood right now meant any annoyance could set him off. While he was thinking he realized something. His arrival here he knew had been no accident, but now he knew it was more than even that. Diablos had thrown him here knowing what he might find; knowing that he would either become trapped here or found by that thing as he traveled. He flinched ever so slightly as the image came into mind. He still feared it and that is why he eventually stopped leaving the Abyss. With his pawns to do all the work he was safe, and so long as he was, they could live on and on til he chose to end it. And he had a few times. However, he now felt that this matter was all drawing to a close. Soon he felt he would have no choice. _Is all this happening so that I am forced to go there and put myself at risk. Hmph. I won't be bullied so easily._ He was thinking.

All three of them stood there watching Scythe, waiting. Suddenly he became very calm after what seemed like hours of silent rage. He did not move, but they knew he was about to speak and they were ready. All of them were relived as the powerful and angry aura he had been emitting diminished. Siren knew that he would send Glaed out to fight again. She was the only one that had never fought them, but she knew it was because they were stronger than her, and Sephiroth, could easily defeat her. She felt weak and useless, but she wanted to prove herself. She did everything she was asked happily and put forth the most effort. She had high hopes that Scythe would see her as useful and that was all she really wanted.

"Glaed, you will fight them again, but not alone. Know this is your last chance, Glaed. Fail and die." He said. "This time we will have a different strategy. Now is our best chance. We will destroy what is left of her fighting spirit." They all understood. This was his last stand. He was going to do something big this time; and if it failed they would all face punishment by him.

"Siren, I also have a job for you. Simon will accompany you. I need you to find me some hostages. I have a few in mind."

"Hostages?" Siren repeated wondering who she would be getting. Besides that it was odd. They had never done this before. It felt almost desperate, but she would never question him. He was all she lived for. Simon thought it was strange as well, but knew it was just a matter of course. _This has to happen._ He thought.

Scythe ignored her and moved on. He explained to them who to look for and where they might be at the time. He knew how to get there, but with its silence these tasks were more difficult and had a higher margin for error. At the moment they were risks he had to take. "Simon when you return I want you to deliver a message to them. Tell them Glaed is awaiting them. Do not reveal that there are hostages, or that she won't be alone. You will need to confer with one another to make sure this goes smoothly. I want to surprise her and after recent events she should be very shaken."

"That should make things easy then." Glaed said almost disappointed. "Especially now that we know _he _is trapped in the Crater." She said.

"This is a very different approach." Simon stated. "You intend to break her will. Do you intend to have her come to us then?" He asked.

"That is a possible outcome, but so however is them saving the hostages." He said. They did not seem thrilled by that. "However, I have thought long and hard about all of this. With what I will be giving you it will be a very difficult fight for them. What they'll be up against is a small army." He paused for a moment and then turned to them. "No more of this idle chit-chat. Go, Siren, you know what to do."

She nodded and turned on a heel to leave followed shortly by Simon. He knew that he was only a means to help carry them. This part was easy. The battle to come was something he knew he would never see, but he also knew it was not going to be easy for either side.

* * *

Siren and Simon walked the streets of the busy city. She had been here once. It was very different from many of the worlds they had visited. That's part of the reason they came here in the first place. Scythe had become interested in it. The technology was different and so were the people. They were weak. Magic did not exist, and the Guardians, that he knew resided on many worlds, seemed to be absent here. It was odd to them all that there were planets like this, but in this universe there was only this one. None other held life on it as this one did. These people thought things like them were just something made up. A fantasy. They honestly found it disgusting. Simon was right at home. It had been years since he had set foot on his own world.

They knew a general area of where to find them, but their schedule was all but routine. They did different things all the time. That seemed the norm here. People were always going here or there. Siren found it annoying. There were too many people around. If they did anything in a crowd they would have to talk them into going to a more secluded area. Simon knew that unless they or rather Siren posed as a new friend or if they posed as tourists they might find it hard. He told her to follow his lead in case things seemed to be heading the wrong direction.

Finally after hours of looking they ran into one of them. Siren could put her to sleep and then they would go look for the other one. She was very fragile to them. She was very introverted and shy. There was someone else with her and she seemed to cling to them. They did know what had happened to her to make her like that. It was funny in a way that they might be traumatizing her even more by doing this.

"Um...excuse me, but we seem to be lost." Siren said trying to look the part. The two people stared at her for a moment also eying Simon. He was the one that made them feel suspicious. "Can you help us. We were supposed to meet some friends and we're so turned around we don't even know where we are." She said looking frustrated.

"Sure. Where were you supposed to meet?" One asked. It was innocent enough, but on the inside Siren was smiling. This was going well. _This is too easy._

* * *

Glaed made her way to Gaia. First thing she had to do was anticipate where they were headed next and find the best place to set all of this up. Scythe had not decided upon a location so it was up to her. She needed to find a nice open area where they couldn't hide, but she could use her own abilities fully. And she also had to account for the help she would be receiving. She was not sure what manner of creatures he would send to help her, but she wanted it all to be a surprise. She wanted them to see her and then them later when they thought she was the only one. This was all she was allowed. Her restlessness had not gone unnoticed. She grew tired of this game. She grew tired of losing.

_If I had my wings and that power...things would __be_ _different. _She was thinking. The thought made her pause. _What if I had my wings? Would that change anything?_ She shook her head and anger filled her. She lashed out at her surroundings until she calmed and starred out into the distance. _I don't need them. His power brought me back to the living. Even without my wings I can fly, but..._ She stopped knowing what it had done to her. Now suddenly she felt emotions that she thought had long since gone. "Why?" She shouted. "Why do I care about this?" She clenched her fists and forced herself to focus on the task at hand, but the thought would not leave her. By removing her wings was losing the ability to fly all she had really done to herself? This made her think that it was time to ask Scythe a question. _Could he? No, would he be able to do it?_

* * *

"Where is Glaed?"Simon asked. He was aware that she had gone scouting for a location, but he knew that she was a very decisive person.

"She should return soon." Scythe replied. Siren placed the unconscious hostages close by. They had made sure to keep them nicely sedated. "Things went smoothly for you two I see." He said glancing at them.

"It was almost too easy." Siren responded. Simon merely nodded to this. Scythe was pleased that at least this part went well without much effort on their part. When Glaed returned they would begin the next part. He already decided what to do with them.

Glaed returned and she b-lined her way to Scythe. He already knew that she was upset about something and that she had something to say. "I've decided something." She began. Scythe looked at her with interest. "I've been thinking that all we've done is lose to them, with or without _his _help." They all agreed knowing exactly what she meant. "It occurred to me that when I removed my wings I did more than simply alienate myself from the Aegyl. I took away my flight, and part of my own spirit." She said. She had never sounded this serious before and each of them listened intently. "I want to know. Can you give that back to me?"

"I cannot restore your wings. They are beyond repair." He stated. He understood what she was asking. She hoped it would empower her.

"Is that necessary? Do I even need them to fly? I want an advantage that I didn't have before. I remember when I fought on Lemures. When I fought flying through the air at my opponent. I realize that now, even though I have the ability to do something similar to that it is not the same. My ability to fight has been reduced. I need to fix that!" She said nearly shouting by the end.

"I can't give you your wings, but...I can give you something close. However, even this will have limitations. It should be used as an addition to your talents. Do not rely heavily on it for long periods of time. You will find that though it can help it can hurt as well, as it is with most things." Scythe warned.

"I see. Do it. We need every advantage we can get. Besides, I want to taste her blood!" She said going back to the Glaed they recognized.

"Have you found a satisfactory site?" He asked before proceeding further. She nodded. "Good. Afterward be sure Simon knows so he can direct them to you. I must go into a bit more detail of my plan. I want the stakes to be high and we cannot give them much room or time to retaliate. Siren, I know that you know some magic. That will prove useful here. You will remain somewhere within range, but not visible. If they do manage to get too close I want you to make sure that even if they do save them they are not coming out of this unscathed." He said. "You should also place spells on yourself to minimize their visibility of you and protect yourself. There is no guarantee that they will not find you. If you find yourself in a position to fight and lose kill the hostages and flee."

Siren's heart jumped. She was going to take part! Her excitement was visible, but she remained subdued as he was not nearly done explaining the plan to them. He had it all planned out and he even went over different strategies and tactics to counter their enemy. There were few of them now and this time they would be incorporating monsters into the fight. This was something they had been unaware of. None of them knew that he could call upon monsters to fight, but in truth these monsters were nothing like the Espers and Guardians that existed on many worlds. Nor were they something he used lightly. It was a secret he kept to himself. Something he knew would be useful, but was also tricky.

"Now, Glaed, I will give you wings of a sort. When you use this it will feel like you have wings again and they will function much like them as well, but remember there are limitations. I suggest that you try this out before using it in the fight to come. It's been a long time since you flew on wings." She merely nodded. He chanted a few words over her and made sure to explain how it worked and anything else she might need to know. Then he sent her to test this new ability. He told her to push herself to the limit and that one of the others would bring her back if need be. She merely nodded and left almost running. She was ready.

Glaed knew where to go to test this. There was a world that primarily held monsters and the like. Humans had long since died out there. She had happened upon it when she first began using deaths many doorways. She was not use to it yet and managed to lose herself. She found herself in a world that many would be frightened of. This place was overrun with monsters all fighting over territory or simply to kill. There seemed to be no leader or even organization among them. It seemed that they were in a power struggle all trying to reach the top, but at that point no one had managed to successfully gain power over the other. After several visits she realized that this was a good place for her to train, but when one of the more powerful monsters discovered her killing his underlings he became angry. When they met she had no fear of losing. She could not be killed by anyone unless Scythe removed the spell that kept her alive. Here she could fight to her heart's content and had gained a lot of reputation as a story of some mysterious traveler of unknown origin and species that was immortal.

She returned now knowing that finally someone had gained enough power over them to rule and she was going to fight them. Both Simon and Siren followed her. Neither of them had even known about this place or that when she disappeared this is where she went. The monsters were very strong here. Stronger than they had ever seen. Fighting was all they seemed to know. Glaed marched up to the makeshift castle he had made out of old ruins and stood before him on his throne. This monster was of a high class. He had the ability to speak where as many of them could not. He also had a very deep understanding of things. When she stood before him he was not surprised.

"And so a hume stands before me as if to challenge me." He said almost laughing. "You are the one they talk of in stories are you not? I have waited." He said rising from his throne. He was a rather large monster. He towered over her like a giant ogre. He wore spiked armor and adorned more royal attire than the rest of them. Glaed could see that there were several holes in the armor that were to allow movement, but for her they were weak spots. The flag behind him had a symbol which she guessed was a marking he chose to represent him and his followers. It also adorned his armor and many other things around them. His weapon of choice was a massive ax. He smiled at her showing rows of sharp yellow teeth.

"You are the leader here, and I have decided to kill you."

"And if you do?"

"Hmph. I do not wish to take your place. I have simply gained more power and wish to test it out on a formidable opponent. You were the only one worthy of a fight."

"I see. And what if this new found power of yours falls short?" He asked her.

"Then you may kill me if you can, but understand that you can kill me as much as you like and I will never die!" She said attacking. She started off as she normally would. She had never fought him and wanted to gauge him first. She realized that he was very strong. He could easily dodge her attacks as well. She was only gauging his abilities and he knew that. He also did the same. Simon and Siren watched from the shadows. She finally decided it was time to use it. Now she had an understanding of him and now she wanted to see how he would stack up to this new power she had.

She immediately felt a difference. The feeling made her nostalgic. She almost felt like she was home again with her wings, but that she pushed aside. He seemed to notice a difference in her as well and began to pull back to gauge this change. But she easily remembered her wings and what it was like to use them. She leaped up into the air as high as she could and stopped herself in mid-air. She looked down and smiled. _This I have missed._ She thought as she prepared her next attack. He was taken aback. He could only see hints of the wings that now held her up like near invisible replicas of what she had in the past. He had failed to notice that there were remnants of them on her back. He frowned and prepared for her. He could not fly, but he had fought many opponents who could. However, the difference here was staggering. She felt invincible. She could move more easily and she was very fast.

He barely managed to block her first attack, but the second one came even faster and since she intended to push herself, as she had been asked, she only caused minor damage. She could do more. It was like she felt truly alive for the first time. She continued to attack giving him no quarter. Her attacks grew increasingly fast and furious, but she held off killing him. She had to know the true limits of this power. Though Scythe had explained, he also stated that these effects may be different depending on what she does. She finally stopped a few feet behind him. Blood littered the area around him. He had barely moved from that spot and anyone watching stood there frozen. Many were his underlings and to see him losing to a hume was a lot to bare, but this hume was different. They all knew that if they decided to help him they would either die or be punished severely for interrupting a challenge.

Glaed stood there breathing deeply. She could smell the blood on her blade and it made her blood boil. It intensified the blood lust that she had. She turned to him and smiled. "It would seem that like this even you are too weak." She stated. She expected fear from him, but he never showed it. He simply laughed.

"My, my, you are strong. However, I must admit that I have been holding back a bit more than I should have." He stated turning towards her. His eyes were different now. She suddenly felt an oppressive aura. Those watching backed away from them. Some knew what this meant. Glaed neither moved nor showed any kind of reaction. She was not afraid. She was actually rather excited.

"I see. This should be fun then. I wanted a strong opponent. I can't wait to see what you can do so please don't hold back on me." She said tasting the blood on her sword with a smile.

"Hmph. No more games from you either." He said getting ready. She could now visibly see the power he had. It pulsed around him like a flame and anything small enough was also pulled into it. She noticed the tiny rocks that hovered around him. They only remained for a few seconds before disintegrating. They both stood there silently for quite some time. No one moved and all were anticipating that first move. Who would go first and who would win? Even the two fighters were not sure who would end the victor here.

Finally he made the first move. It was so fast Glaed almost did not have time to react, but she had been prepared for his attack. Even though it was quick he had been showing signs that he would move soon. She had seen the muscles tightening as he prepared to charge. The biggest surprise for her was when she pushed him back he simply vanished. The next moment he was behind her with his ax held up with the intention of killing her there, but her instincts made her move away and he just missed her. She whirled around him and thrust her sword through him. This did nothing to deter him. With one hand he grabbed the blade and ripped it out while at the same time he turned around and attacked. Glaed made a quick choice and let go of her sword to escape him. Once again he just missed her. Now with her sword in hand he flipped it around and flung it at her. Being quick on her feet she managed to catch it realizing too late that that was the intention. He was behind her and a crackling sound was all she heard before he slashed her. The surge of electricity she felt made her stop, but she forced herself to ignore the pain. She was now injured and that shock had frozen her senses for a moment. She knew she would heal, but he was nowhere to be found.

Glaed stood there alone for a moment and then suddenly he was there for only an instant. He attacked and then vanished only to reappear somewhere else at random. She barely defended and by this time she grew tired of this onslaught. She jumped up to avoid his ax as he swept at her legs and landed on it shoving it into the ground. At the same time she stabbed him over and over. For whatever reason these attacks only made him angrier and more determined. He eventually lifted her up with the ax and threw her aside. She recovered and instantly attacked him. He defended and that is when she noticed the cracks. They had been fighting so furiously and forcefully that his weapon could not handle it. Cracks in the ax meant that soon it would break if things kept up.

Nearby both Siren and Simon watched intently making their own comments to themselves about the battle between them. Simon knew that Glaed would come out of this, but even he was not really sure who would win. All he knew was that she would leave this place regardless of the outcome. Siren was a little concerned that she might lose. And she was not sure how Glaed would react to that. She remembered the last time she lost a fight. Though her role then was a small one she hated losing in any respect. The world Glaed went to terrorize was soon filled with blood and the screams of people young and old, male and female, and those who could fight back had been mercilessly cut down. She wondered what would happen here if she lost. Would they feel her wrath? Or would she even be in the condition to do so? Siren did notice the cracks in his weapon. It gave her an inkling that soon this fight would end. She wondered if without a weapon he would still be a formidable foe.

To everyone's surprise he felt along the cracks with his hand and then tossed it aside. No new weapon was offered him. He had long nails on both hands that were quite sharp. Glaed knew that soon this would end. She could win. She had to win. This opponent was the closest to Sephiroth on Gaia. She wondered if he might even be stronger. If she could best him then they would have little chance of defeating her. She was starting to feel side effects as well. It was draining, but she could not give up. This would be the end of it. _This next attack is it. I'll put everything into it and finish him in one blow._ She thought.

He was thinking the same as her. _This next attack decides everything. If I connect then I win. She grows weary._ He thought. He moved into a defensive position. He knew that she would attack and if he could avoid it and strike her then the fight would be his. He anticipated correctly she did attack. It seemed that she would come at him head on, a tactic that had proved unfavorable against him. He was quick to react to things in front of him and his senses were heightened. He could feel her moving as her aura pushed against his. However, when she was within range she vanished. Her aura vanished as well. All sense of her was gone for an instant. It was then that he noticed something else. He cursed himself for not realizing it sooner, but smiled at the fact that she was better than he thought. She hit him once and his armor snapped off of him breaking in a few places because of the force she used. All the time she had attacked she had been chipping away at the places that held it together and finally it had given way. She had realized early on that unless she removed the armor this fight could go on forever. He had only thought that she was aiming for the weak places in the armor where there were holes. These injuries had been minor for him. He had thick skin, but now he was completely exposed. Her next attack was aimed at his heart and it came faster than he expected. However, she was also in for a surprise.

He stopped her blade with his hands and a small amount of blood trickled down. Glaed put everything she had into inching her sword closer and closer, but she was running out of strength. This new ability was starting to run out, and she had been pushing herself past her limits for too long. The wings cracked like glass and broke shattering into the air disappearing completely. At the same time her arms gave out and he threw her back tossing her back into the crowd of monsters.

"Hmph. She was trying too hard." Simon commented. "Perhaps now is a good time to step in." He said to Siren. She nodded and as they did Glaed stood up so they waited. The look she gave them made them wait.

"Well, I can't say I'm not disappointed that it wasn't enough to beat you, but I'm not even close to finished yet!" The look in her eyes told them all that she was angry.

"Hmm. Are you sure you wish to continue? I haven't exhausted all of my strength yet. And though I am less protected don't think it will be easy." He said.

"I can see why you became the leader." She told him. She went and picked up her sword and got into an attack position. Once again they stared at each other. _I don't have much left. I have to outsmart him. He saw me coming, no, did he know what I was going to do? If that's it then..._She rushed forward using her anger to give her strength. He noted that her attacks came very furiously even in her current state.

_She truly is a tenacious warrior. She won't give up til she can't move._ He thought as they fought. A smile crept onto his face. _I suppose I should end this soon then._ He had mostly been defending. It was only a means to tire her out and prolong their fight. Now he had little desire to continue. It seemed to him that she was strong, but was not capable at this point of defeating him. She jumped away and leaped up into the air to attack from above. He watched her and waited for the right moment and then thrust his right hand through her gut piercing her with his claws. She sat there stunned for a moment both arms somewhat limp. Then she coughed and raised her head up to look at him. A smile was stuck on her face.

"You fell for it!" She was holding his arm still and now they were stuck in that position. He tried to pull away, but found himself unable to do so. At the same time she plunged her sword into his chest as hard as she could. He instinctively grabbed her arm and attempted to pull it back to stop her, but this time it had paid off. "Now die!" He gave her a rather confused look, but soon it turned to recognition. Her sword had a special property that in truth was a rare occurrence, but she was hoping for it to work and it did. It had a particular poison in it that was almost always fatal and if injected in this manner occurred within seconds.

Both Simon and Siren were a bit relieved that she had won. It was a good change of pace for them. Both of them went to her as she forced him onto the ground and dislodged his hand from her. She backed away from him at this point feeling a little weak from the fight. She knew that soon she would heal, but she also realized that this wound felt strange. "Poison..." She said falling to her knees. "Hahahahahaha!" She laughed as she held the wound. Her body tensed as the poison attacked her. "Nicely played." She whispered to him with a smile.

Siren checked to see that her opponent was truly dead. As far as she could tell he was. He had been full of surprises, but somehow Glaed had won and this meant that their next opponents would definitely have a hard time winning. _This time it's all over for you._ Siren was thinking. Simon had already helped Glaed up and opened death. She went to help as well being sure to get her sword first. The monsters in the area just gaped at the scene before them. A hume had defeated their leader. Now, once again, the world would be plunged into another struggle over power. None of them moved until all the humes were gone. Where they went, none of them cared. Their leader was gone and would be put to rest. They honestly hoped that the humes would never return there and a hint of fear was instilled in all who were there.

**Author:** Decided the baddies needed some love. Hope you enjoyed it.


	92. The Calm Before the Storm?

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 92 The Calm Before the Storm?

While we were listening to Cloud's revelation the airship had been directed towards Junon. We knew that a huge materia was being transported from there and it would be prudent for us to retrieve it. I sat out of it and decided to stay behind when they went to Rocket Town for the next Huge Materia. I didn't go with them out into space in their attempt to get it. I merely sat in my room silently staring at nothing in particular. All of them seemed to understand. The only thing I could think about was what a failure I was. I had done a lot of things here, but nothing I did seemed to amount to much. I had told them of my dream and their reaction to it was what I expected. It seemed to give them another reason to fight and they even seemed to want to help me, but I was still thinking about them. They were out there alone with someone doing who knows what to them and I was here unable to find them. _What if they hate me? I don't know if I could live with that._ I was thinking. Every once in a while I noticed one of them walking by and there was that moment where they slowed their walking or sometimes stopped altogether to look in on me. From their perspective I probably have not moved much.

I barely listened as we went here or there doing things. Bugenhagen was on the ship with us and even he stopped by to see me. At first he just stood there looking at me. I tried to ignore him, but it was difficult and he was very patient. "Isn't there something better you have to do? I'd like to be alone." I said in a solemn tone.

"Are you sure that's what you really want?" He asked me. "You're friends are worried about you." I remained silent not really wanting to talk to anyone at the moment. He finally left leaving me with some advice. "Don't forget that you're not alone. There are plenty of people who want to help you and without them do you really think you could have gotten this far?"

I heard the words, but at the time they barely sunk in. At the moment we were headed for Midgar. After spending some time with Bugenhagen and learning about Holy and what Aeris had been doing they were more determined than ever to stop Sephiroth. Especially now that they knew that unless they defeated him the world would be destroyed. All of them gave me strange looks. I knew that they wanted to know what I would do. Would I allow them to kill him? How did it feel to hear this? They were a little bit conflicted because of me. I said nothing the whole time still stuck in my own thoughts. When we left there the earth shook and we saw a huge Weapon lumbering its way towards Midgar. Of course, there were still plenty of people in the city that could get hurt. They decided quickly that something needed to be done.

Stopping that Weapon was a priority and Cloud was trying to get me to help them, but in the state I was in I was unsure of everything. _Should I do something? I'm good in a fight, but is that all?_ I could not make myself do anything and they finally gave up and went on their own to fight it. Their efforts fell short in that it continued to move towards the city and managed to fire at it as well taking out the top of Shinra building and damaging other parts of the city as well. At that time the cannon fired going right through the Weapon and hitting the Crater. The barrier was not strong enough and gave way. Everyone saw this as an opportunity to go and fight Sephiroth, but learned quickly that it was not over yet.

"The cannon is prepping to fire again! Hojo is feeding more power into it and there's most likely a chance that it will just overload. When that happens it could cause a lot of damage." Cait Sith was saying.

"Then we should hurry! We can parachute into the city and make our way to the cannon. It's the fastest way." Cid told everyone. "Anyone going should get out on the deck asap!" Cid said. He then began shouting orders to the crew and everyone was rushing around the ship getting ready.

"Are you coming?" Cloud asked. For some reason he of all people seemed to try the hardest to get me out of this self-loathing. I shook my head not really knowing what I wanted to do. He sighed and left me. I did see the look on his face. He was concerned about me. It made me wonder. Ever since he got his memory back he seemed to feel differently towards me and my situation. His anger from before seemed to be less or perhaps there just has not been much time for it.

I was wondering what I should do. _God something must be wrong with me. Dunno if I wanna parachute into Midgar though...it's not something I've ever done. But then again...Hojo will be there. Maybe I can scare him into telling me something. Even a hint would be fine before it's too late. _That's when Bugenhagen's words came back to me. "I'm not alone…." I repeated. I knew that, but at the same time, I felt responsible. But going would also mean another chance to redeem myself. If I could get Hojo to let some information slip then perhaps I could still find them even if I did have to go alone. _Guess I should go before they count me out altogether._ Iwas thinking. I knew that there was no chance he would just tell me. I was not like Sephiroth. I did not frighten him to the point where he feared me. I finally made up my mind and went outside hoping to catch them."I'm Coming with you!"I said as soon as I got out there.

"I saved you one just in case." Cloud said smiling at me as he handed me the parachute.

"Sorry. I just needed some time alone I guess." He just nodded and got ready.

"We're almost there."I hit the ground running. There was a moment where I felt a little uneasy though. I b-lined it to where I knew Hojo was. In my head I was repeating the directions. Stray thoughts did pop up, but constantly repeating where to go was all I could do to stop them. This was something I had to try. _If I can just get something…a hint as to where they might be that will count for something! It has to! _Somehow I got way ahead of them. I had noticed that they were trying to keep up, but I was taking any shortcut I saw. I did manage to avoid most of the soldiers. If one did spot me I knocked him down before he had time to do much of anything.

"Hojo!" I shouted at him at the top of the cannon. He turned to me and smiled.

"Ah so you're here. Tell me, did you like the game?" As he spoke I quickly made my way to him and put a gunblade against his neck.

"What do you think?" I said seething. He gave me a rather odd look, but he was also observant enough to know when he should be careful. At the moment he was wondering what I was going to do. "Where are they?" I asked.

"Honestly, I don't know." He told me matter of factually. "I thought it would be better that way. I sent them to different facilities and the ones taking them got to decide where. No one is even being told where they are right now. If I wanted to find them I could, but it wouldn't be easy. Although they aren't my main concern, I want to help Sephiroth right now." Hojo said giving a little shrug.

"He doesn't need your help." I said pushing the blade against his skin. He hesitated glancing at it before continuing.

"He is my son after all. I should do something for him. Without me he wouldn't be who he is now. He would only have been an insignificant person if he was born at all. He's perfect. You thought so." He said with a laugh. I narrowed my eyes and let the blade rest on his shoulder applying only enough pressure to make him bleed.

"Hmph. What would you know about being a parent. Parent's don't experiment on their children if they truly care about them. And don't you think it's a little late for that?" I said to him. He hardly seemed fazed by it.

"My, my aren't we angry." He said. "And what of your parent's? When we found you you were alone, and according to your blood records both of them are dead in that prison." Of course, I knew that he had no idea what my life was like or who my parents were. It did bring up images of them and that only made me angrier.

"You don't know anything about them! Or even me for that matter!" I said knocking him back into the console. "Don't ever talk about them like you know anything!" As I grew angrier darkness began to emanate from my shadow mostly hovering around my feet. I noticed, but ignored it for the moment.

"Oh really? Is that what you think?" He said giving me a smile. "Don't forget that we have eyes on you. I know quite a lot about you. And you told me quite a lot during that game, like calling Angeal your father for example." He said. "It turns out to ring true, but you are different from us. That body of yours has two identities. What happens when your time is up? What will happen to you when it's over? Will you fade away and be forgotten?" He said.

"Shut up! You don't know the half of it!" I said putting the gun to his chest. "I knew about Cait Sith and Reeve. And my friends don't even know the whole story. That means neither do you. So don't pretend you get it. You have no idea!" I said shooting him. The look he gave me was mixed. He probably never expected me to shoot him like that. Honestly, I was surprised at myself a little. I was so wound up by everything that was going on I could feel myself starting to lose composure.

* * *

Cloud and them fell behind Lilia quickly and saw that it was better to let her go on ahead. They made their way a bit more slowly and since they were a larger group it would be a little more difficult to sneak by the soldiers on duty. It was not really a difficult task for them. By now they were much stronger than before and taking out a few soldiers was nothing. They did run into the Turks, but managed to get past them without even initiating a fight. They were a bit surprised by this, but at a time like this you take what you can get. Once again just as they reached the base of the cannon there were obstacles. This was a hindrance, but they managed to quickly dispose of Heidegger and Scarlet's little monster. When they did catch up to her they found her just as she shot Hojo shouting at him.

Cloud saw how she stood there shaking slightly from her anger.

"Lilia!? Is he..." Cloud said.

"No." She shook her head and backed away. The look on her face told them that she was upset and this had done little or nothing to help. "He...doesn't know where they are either." She said gritting her teeth. Cloud noticed a few tears as well as the dark mist that was coming from her shadow.

"Lilia, I'm sorry." That was what all of them said. A few minutes later Hojo opened his eyes and started to stand.

"Hmm. Well it seems...I had the right idea." He said. He used the console behind him to stand up and as he did so he checked on the status of the cannon. "When it's charged it will fire and that will be that." He said. "I should let you know. I injected Jenova cells into my body and I would like to test it out on you."

"Why do all this?" Cloud asked.

"For Sephiroth of course." He stated. "A parent should do what they can for their children to excel." He said.

"Sephiroth is..." Cloud didn't finish. Hojo had begun to transform into a monster. "Lilia?" She just stood there shaking slightly. Cloud was a little worried about that. He was concerned about the shadowy mist still emanating from her. What that really meant he was not sure, but he had a feeling it was not good.

Hojo, now transformed, attacked them at first only testing himself. The damage they did was minimal. He was fast enough to dodge many of their attacks without too much effort. He just wanted to see how far he could go. And he did need to stall for some time. It would take some time for the cannon to charge. It now was hooked up to all of the reactors in the city and drawing in a lot of power. He knew that they probably wouldn't get much use out of it that way. Too much power could overload it. Lilia remained somewhat out of the fight only defending if need be, but she was not moving at all. Only the shadows around her moved.

Hojo noticed and it too began to concern him. This power of hers was rather dangerous. He wondered what would happen if she lost control of them. _Were she to go berserk would anyone survive it?_ He wondered if Sephiroth could handle her then. It was an interesting question to him. However, he did not want to provoke her too soon. If he did then everything he was doing would be a waste, and the cannon was not the only thing he was working on. So he focused more on the others. _It should be ready soon!_ He was thinking. He was glad. Even with the Jenova Cells he was starting to wear down. They were stronger than he thought. Finally, he heard the sound of the cannon at full charge. All he had to do was press a button and it was done. He backed away from them and quickly went to the console aiming for the button to fire it. Of course, after all this effort it only malfunctioned. Hojo was upset but before he could do anything the console blew up on him.

This did not kill him and in his anger he went to attack them, but they dodged and he ran into the one person he had not intended to fight that day. Lilia stood there with her fists clenched shaking slightly. When he got too close to her, not for lack of trying, the shadowy tendrils floating around her reacted and pierced right through him.

* * *

Simon made his way to Gaia already knowing where to go. He would watch their little fight with that scientist before delivering his final message. While he watched he thought about what he wanted to do before Scythe killed him. He knew that his existence after his death was only a small flicker of life made on a whim. Of course, he had his uses for him and he understood that that is how he was seen, but in watching this fight he realized that even though it was a whim on Scythe's part that gave him this second life, it was another piece to the puzzle that lead to their unavoidable fate.

"I could have easily been like him." He whispered as he watched. He did remember that there was a time when he had indulged ideas of experiments that might be considered immoral or unethical. What these people were doing on this world would be frowned upon on Earth, but even he knew that there were plenty of times where people did and got away with it. He also saw something else in that scientist. He looked like a grotesque monster to him. His appearance did not help. When the fight was over he decided to make his presence known so he could leave and do as he pleased before the end. _I have little time._

"What an ugly thing he was." Simon stated looking at Hojo. The look of disgust was evident. His focus changed as he now addressed Lilia. "I come with a message for you."

"What is it, Simon? What do you have to tell me?" She said mostly through her teeth. She did not move and he could feel her anger in the air.

"I see that you're angry. I can understand, but my message isn't going to help that. If anything it'll make it worse." He said.

"Spit it out!" She growled. He physically felt a surge of energy around him as her anger became more directed towards him. He sighed and shook his head finding himself feeling a little frustrated.

"I've come to announce your next fight against Glaed. She's waiting for you and I'm sure that you'll be surprised by what you find there." He said. He watched her gauging her reaction. "I know that right now this might seem like a waste of your time, but there will be consequences if you don't arrive within the allotted time. I'm sure you don't want any more people to die because of you."

"Where?"

"You have two days to be there. That should be enough time to prepare. I'm not familiar with this world, but I believe it's an area called Cosmo Canyon. I'm sure you can find her with that Airship easily enough." He said thinking. That area was perfect for what Glaed was going to do and the monsters that Scythe had mentioned were also fairly accustomed to such things. "I do wish you luck. This...will be the last time we meet."

"He has no more use for you." She stated changing her tone slightly. He merely nodded.

"He believes that this fight will be your last, but I have already seen the outcome. However, I will say that this is all drawing to a close. Who comes out on top...well...that would be giving away the ending." He said. "I think I'll go home now...one last time..." He said turning away from them. There was a smile on his face as he remembered his home. It had been quite some time since he last saw it. He left them to do as they wished knowing that they would take him seriously and go. He still had one task before he could go.

His next stop was to see Siren and Glaed. Both of them were waiting for him. They were alone and there was no sign of anyone else. "I told them. They should arrive sometime tomorrow." He told them.

"We're almost ready here too. I think this will work." Siren said.

"All of our destinies have been decided. None of us, not even he, can escape the fate that awaits us." Simon said as he watched them.

"Are you saying that our dream is just that?" Siren asked him. He merely nodded and turned to leave. Glaed was listening and in her eyes he saw a hint emotion. She said nothing to him looking away to finish preparations.

"We won't see each other again." He said to them both. "I'm wonder if I will see it again?" He said.

"See what?" Glaed asked.

"When I died someone was there waiting for me. I wonder what I might see this time. It's the only thing I do not know." He said as he stepped into death making his way towards Earth. There were two places that he wanted to see. His home where he knew his family still lived, and his favorite place. It was a little gazebo in a park by his workplace. When he arrived at his house he saw them in the kitchen gathered around the table to eat. The sight made him smile. "Perhaps, if I'm deemed worthy, I'll wait for you on the other side." He said watching them. He felt the pain hit him like a brick. He almost fell to his knees, but he did not want to look away.

He actually felt a tear fall down his cheek. He went to wipe it away, but stopped and looked at his hand and started to laugh. Skin peeled off of him and he looked back up at the house. They were completely oblivious to what was happening outside. He preferred it that way. "If they saw me now, what would they really think?" He wondered. "I would have liked to have gone there." He said thinking about that park. "It's where my defining moment was." He said his voice getting hoarse. He watched until he no longer could see them smiling all the while. _At least it's a better end then I could have hoped for. Would they forgive me for what I've done in my quest for knowledge?_ He was thinking.

The next thing he knew he was seeing the familiar white landscape of death and before him stood a familiar face. "Ah! So it is you again." He said as he stood up. This person merely nodded. "I had wondered what I would see."

"It's not the same for everyone. We are merely a guide." He smiled and shook his head to follow them.

* * *

Simon's words reverberated in our minds. _There will be consequences if you don't arrive within the allotted time._ What that meant none of us were sure, but we had done what we had come here to do. Hojo was done for and the cannon is useless now. All that was left was Sephiroth and of course my enemies.

Everyone was contemplating what he said. At the same time I noticed that none of them were near me. My shadow was swirling around me. Having noticed this I was surprised. _Was I really so angry that I didn't even notice this? _I quickly regained my composure, but it did worry me.

"Lilia?" Cloud said putting a hand on my shoulder. It was sudden and brought me out of my thoughts. "Let's go. We shouldn't waste time. Cait Sith says that they've estimated Meteor will hit in 7 days. We should take care of her soon." He said. I just nodded wondering what was in store for us. It could not be good.

Cloud on the other hand was worried. It was written on his face and so was everyone else. They were all thinking about me and Sephiroth. My reaction towards Hojo had put them all on guard with me. They were afraid that I was losing control. They feared that fighting Glaed would do even more damage to me. It was natural for friends to worry about one another. I was worried too. I felt like I was losing it.

**Author: **OK. Next is the fight with Glaed. How do you think this will turn out? On another note I actually wrote ahead on the next part so writing the parts up to that point have been rather hard for me. Sigh…got myself too excited over it or something….anyway hope you enjoyed. Also, the next chapter will have a drawing with it. I started it a while back and finally decided to use it. It's been a while since I drew something for this story.


	93. Battle in the Canyon

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 93 Battle in the Canyon

Once back in the airship everyone seemed to have made up their minds. We had to go and find Glaed. Everyone was worried about that warning we received. _There will be consequences if you don't arrive within the allotted time._ Those words definitely meant something. It was hard for me to keep my mind from wondering. Cloud called a meeting before we did anything.

"Alright, there are two things I'd like to say." Cloud said once everyone was there. "First, I think we should rest before we just head over to Cosmo Canyon so everyone should make sure to get some sleep. We'll be en route and hopefully arrive tomorrow. Cid, I'd like the crew to do a little scouting when we arrive. Just note if there are areas that might be good for Glaed to be waiting. From the sound of it it should be obvious. They want us to find her." He said. Cid nodded and everyone else did as well. "Once we're there and everyone one is ready to go we'll attack. We should end this quickly so we can move on to other things, however, don't forget how dangerous she is." He paused looking at everyone. What he had to say next seemed to be more difficult for him. "Our next objective will be to go fight Sephiroth." Cloud began glancing at me when he said his name. "But before that, I'd like everyone to decide for themselves if they're going to go or not. You can go wherever you want and you can decide for yourselves what you really want to do. In four days the airship will lift off and head towards the crater. Anyone not on board by then will be left behind." He said.

With that everyone left, but I stayed. Cloud saw that I had something to say and stood there waiting. "Cloud, I have to ask you something." He just nodded. "How do you really feel about me right now? Do you hate me at all? Are you still angry that I didn't tell you? Ever since you got your memory back you've been treating me different. I need to know." He stood there for a few moments in silence looking uncertain, but finally spoke up.

"Well, the truth is, it was a little hard to decide how I really felt after I remembered. After I heard what happened to you while I had been sick, I just couldn't bring myself to say much." He told me. "I'm angry that you hid it from us. I knew there was something, and perhaps that is what they wanted to use against us, but when I think about what might happen if I abandon you…." He said shivering slightly.

"Cloud…."

"Listen, we're friends, and though I can't forgive Sephiroth for what he has done, I can forgive you. It'll take time, but I'll get over it. Even though you hid it, you were still there for us. After all the times you've saved us, how can I just abandon you?" He said with fervor. "I know it's hard, but if we don't protect the world your children's lives will be at stake as well. Don't you think it's better to protect the world right now so that you can still have the chance of finding them?"

"Thanks, Cloud, and I'm sorry I didn't tell you." I said feeling somewhat relieved. He just smiled at me and started to leave, but stopped short.

"Also, I need you to decide what you want to do once we head off to fight him. I know you don't want to, but we have to in order to save the world. If you still want to talk to him I might consider it, but I can't promise you'll have much time."

"I know. I haven't changed my mind about that." I told him.

"Alright then, ask me again when we get there. I still don't think it will work, but I have a feeling I can't stop you from trying." He said leaving. After that I took Clouds advice and went straight to bed. It was hard forcing myself to sleep, but somehow I managed.

* * *

Glaed paced back and forth. Her little set up was finally ready. She went over in her head everything that Scythe had told them. Siren was doing the same. At this time the hostages woke up. They were both confused and obviously frightened. Glaed stood before them watching them as they wiggled within their restraints futilely and begged for her to let them go. "It's a shame I can't cut you up right now. No I have to save that for tomorrow when they arrive." She said to them.

"W-what do you want with us?! Why are we here?" The girl said in tears. "Please, just let us go! I promise we won't tell anyone!"

"Hmph. You're wasting your time little girl. We don't care about that. You'll see tomorrow, but I can't guarantee that you'll live through it." Siren told her. This only made her cry and that started to get on Glaed's nerves.

"Damn!" She said stomping her foot. "If only…if only I didn't need you alive!" She said. The sound she was making made her want to kill her. Not really because it was a bother, but because she enjoyed it.

"Calm down Glaed. We've got to stick to the plan. Once she sees them she'll be vulnerable. Then we'll be able to take her down and finally we'll be able to accomplish our goals!" Siren said.

"Hmph! As if I really care about that! I want her to bleed! I want her to suffer!"

Siren sighed and gave up on her. Glaed was getting antsy. She was wondering why she was suddenly acting like this. She did not really seem like her usual self. Something was off. Ever since she received that new power she was acting different. She had been spending more time in thought something she never did. "Hey, Glaed, are you ok?" She said away from the hostages so they couldn't hear.

"What?! Why ask me that?"

"You've been acting a little off is all."

"What does it matter to you? Not like we're friends or anything." She stated thinking that it was a little odd for her to even respond like that.

"No I guess not, but what I'm hoping is that this change doesn't affect how you fight. If we lose her again, there's no telling what he'll do next. I want this to end soon so he can fulfill his desire. That is the only thing I care about." She said determined.

"Hmph. I never did understand you."

"It's simply really, but I suppose it's something you wouldn't know much about. I love him. I have since the day we met. I don't know why he let me join him, but I'm glad he did. All I want is to be useful to him and I want to see his dreams come true. Remember what he told us back then?" Glaed thought back and she did recall something about changing the way things are by starting everything over. "I want to see that happen. I truly believe that it's the right thing. After everything I've seen I don't think that life can continue down this path. The peoples that exist right now are all the same on every world. They repeat the same things over and over again and never change. Even on my world, they were like that."

Glaed thought about her world and recalled the stories she heard as she grew up. It also brought up memories of when she decided to leave her life as an Aegyl. She knew that if her people continued as they were then they would lose everything. That is why she left that world. She found herself now feeling things that she did not understand. _What is this? These feelings…I…._

"Glaed? Glaed?" Siren touched her shoulder and she jerked away. "Are you sure you're ok?" She asked her with concern on her face.

"Enough of this!" She shouted at her. "No more talk until it's time. They'll be here tomorrow we should make sure we're ready." She said looking behind her at the small army she had waiting. She looked at them and waved a hand telling them to get into position. At dawn they would get started making it harder for them to see, but at the same time telling their prey exactly where to go. This was all part of her plan. She wanted them to see her first, then the monsters, then the hostages. She hoped doing this would have more impact on her giving them the advantage. Siren sighed and got into position to wait making sure to gag the prisoners before doing so. If they were heard it could give them away too early.

* * *

The ship made its way to Cosmo Canyon as we slept. We were woken early by Cid shouting and banging on doors. We had arrived and they were now scouting the area looking for anything out of the ordinary. While they looked we prepared ourselves for what was to come. Still what Simon said was bothering us all. What were the consequences he mentioned exactly?

"I found something!" A crewman shouted. Cid was there first and not too far away from Cosmo Canyon was a sand storm formed inside of a large rock formation to the south. "There, it doesn't look natural in this weather."

"Good job. That'll be her, but what else is in there with her?" Cid said.

"We can't see inside that so we should be cautious." Cloud said. "Everyone stay in small groups. We'll go in from multiple sides, and we might be able to corner her in there."

"We'll land nearby. I don't want the airship spotted just yet, but I think it would be best that after we're inside the ship should be above us. Fly high, but make sure you can keep an eye on us. We're gonna need all the help we can get. It'll be your job to keep us informed of any changes in the storm or if any reinforcements arrive. Everyone should have a PHS handy and ready. GOT IT!" Cid said. The crew nodded and went back to their stations. We then departed and formed our teams on the ground before entering. I felt something else in there with her, but I could not quite figure it out. Something was getting in the way. _Whatever it is they don't want us to know about it yet._

"Everyone ready?" Cloud said. We nodded and he gave the signal to get into position. Once there we were pretty much on our own. We had already decided to go in after waiting a few minutes. Hopefully by then everyone would be in position and we'd be going in simultaneously. Of course, with all of the sand flying around we wouldn't see each other so we had to be careful. As soon as we penetrated the wall of sand the intensity of the storm hit us. Visibility was zero and movement was slow until we became more accustomed to it. Luckily we had covered our faces so we could still talk as needed.

After a few minutes of walking we came into a clear spot. It was a small area where the storm was calm. There seemed to be no reason for it so I knew it was magic. On the group leaders PHS we heard them talking about the areas that had suddenly opened up. It was nice having them helping out.

"There's someone standing alone in the center. That might be her. I can't see anything else with her. Half of you will probably reach her first. Just keep going straight." They told us.

I still felt something here that was odd. I was definitely starting to feel apprehensive. We went through two clear spots before we reached her. "Looks like we're the first ones." Cloud said. It was just him, me, and Red. Not even a minute later we heard screaming over the PHS. "What's going on!?"

"The sand….it's collapsing on us!" Tifa replied. Barret said the same, and the crew confirmed that the center was now the only clear spot in the storm.

"Looks like it's just us right now." I said watching her. She was facing away from us standing perfectly still.

"Is everyone alright?" Cloud asked a few times calling everyone. We managed to get a response from everyone. They were ok, but disoriented. "Good do your best to find your way to the center of the storm where we are and be careful." Cloud told them.

"You should be more worried about yourselves, though I can't say they're safe either." Glaed told us. She turned just enough to see us and smiled. She was ready for us. "Let's get started."

We spread ourselves out around her so we could attack from three sides. She watched, but did not move. She was calm, but I could see excitement in her eyes. As we approached her I saw both Red and Cloud go down. The next moment I felt something grab my leg. A hand had grabbed me from under the sand. A second later a skeleton clad in armor wrenched itself out of the sand and swung it's sword at me. I flung myself onto the ground to avoid it, while at the same time trying to free myself from it. I ended up cutting the hand off so I could get up and then tossed the hand aside.

I glanced over at Cloud and saw that he had done the same as me. Red broke the entire arm off and was now attacking the skeleton full on. Glaed still stood there, but now she was focused on me. I saw her smiling as she slowly walked over to me. I just used some magic on the skeleton and focused on her. When I did she went into a run holding her sword by her side until she was closer. She raised her sword high and I went low and knocked her sword aside with one blade and with the other I had intended to strike at her, but she was quick and grabbed my arm. Being in that position was more difficult that I liked. _I've got to push her back!_

Over the PHS we heard that the others were now being attacked inside the storm. No one else had managed to make it to us yet. The monsters appearing were going to make it much harder for them. "Heh. C'mon! You can do more than this!" Glaed said pushing me back. I struggled to keep her sword back.

"Lilia, move!" Cloud shouted. I looked up and saw him just in time to move. I jumped back letting her fall from her efforts on me. She couldn't move away, but she did manage to block his sword. However the shockwave from his limit still hit her full on. Red was also there close-by waiting. "We won't lose to you!"

Glaed frowned and flung him off of her. At the same time Red attacked, but she jumped into the air and was caught by a large monster. "Do you know who this is? We managed to bring him here along with some other monsters." She said to me. _Do I know him? Should I know him? I can tell he'll be a pain._ I was thinking. Perhaps he had been what I had felt hiding somewhere in the storm. "By the way, as long as he's here they'll just keep coming!" She said pointing down. Skeletons were popping up all over the area from the sand. There were a lot more of them now than before.

"Dammit!" Cloud said cursing. "We'll worry about them, Lilia, you get those two!" Cloud told me. I could tell that he was hoping that soon someone else would show up. I felt the same. Fighting the two of them alone was not going to be easy.

_He must be a summons. Should we do the same? It would have to be a flying one. That doesn't leave a lot of choices. _I was thinking as I avoided the skeletons that popped up near me. I was following her as she made her way towards the wall of the storm. _Is she going to hide in the storm and then attack?_ I thought as I fired off a few shots hoping to get their attention. It seemed to work. The monster turned around and flapped his wings at me throwing wind and sand at me. It knocked me off my feet and I saw her leap down from him. Her sword landed next to my head and she was standing over me with her feet resting on my arms. She pressed just hard enough to keep me from moving. I also saw the monster coming closer. I cursed under my breath and all I was thinking was for my shadow to do something. She came up behind Glaed and flung her aside with little effort. She was surprised and landed beyond the wall of sand. Now only the monster was a problem. Before either of us could react several magic attacks exploded around it. Both of us leaped away and saw Vincent, Yuffie, and Barret behind him.

"We got this one, Lilia." Barret said giving me a nod. I smiled glad that they were here. Now we were just waiting for Cait Sith, Cid, and Tifa. I looked over at the wall of sand where she had gone thru and I saw nothing. I let my senses guide me. She had already moved somewhere else deeper within the sand storm. _That monster she called must be causing this storm. We've got to beat him and clear the area so we can see. _Part of me was worried that there were going to be more surprises when the storm was cleared. I focused on the summons along with Vincent and his group. Cloud and Red did their best to keep the skeletons from attacking us.

We seemed to be making progress when fewer skeletons were appearing after we defeated them. "Looks like he's weakening! Everyone attack him now!" I shouted. Everyone nodded and we all attacked giving him everything we had. Our combined attacks seemed to do a lot of damage. He went on the run pulling all of the skeletons around him as protection. "Get the skeletons. I'll finish him." I said getting ready to use my limit. I felt somewhat apprehensive for some reason since only Red and Vincent had seen me use this. I attacked like I had before with Angeal. The pain from the wings protruding from my back was a bit less this time, but I paid little attention to that. I only saw the target for a few seconds. When I landed and the wings disintegrated into feathers he was down and so were the skeletons. This time they all turned to dust and vanished with the storm.

I rejoined everyone and looked over in the direction that I sensed Glaed. "She's not alone." As the storm cleared we could see her standing a small distance away from us with a small group of monsters. I could see that they were all strong and there was another group of lesser monsters waiting behind them as well, but there was something else I saw further behind her. There was a large curving rock formation with several levels and about halfway up stood Siren. I remembered her instantly. There were two others close to her tied up and gagged. As soon as I saw them I gasped. "It can't be!"

"Sorry we took so long." Tifa said as she reached us gasping for air "After the sand fell on us some monsters attacked us and there were so many it took a while." She said. Everyone was covered in sand and in the few moments we had everyone was trying to remove what they could. I was focused on the two with Siren. The more I stared the more I realized I knew who they were. I had thought that perhaps my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I could no longer deny it. Flashes of them came to me. Memories of the past that I thought I had totally left behind.

"Hostages. They probably would have killed them if we were late as a message to us." Cloud said. He noticed the look on my face. "You know them don't you?"

"Yes. They're from my world." I said. "We have to save them. I can't let them die here!" I said with conviction.

"Noticed our guests have you." Glaed said. She smiled before continuing. "Here's how this part works. If you want to save them all you have to do is give up. If you decide to fight one of them will die right away. The other one…will burn to death." She said.

In my mind I was trying to come up with a plan. I knew that my shadow could reach them and take one of them away, but the question was which one. I knew that getting Siren away from them was priority. She seemed to be the only one there with them. The other monsters were on the ground with us.

"Think you can get them?" Cloud asked.

"I don't know. One for sure, but I don't know about both." I told him.

"Let's pretend to give up." Tifa said. "We can surprise them and you can get your shadow over there and get one of them. Hopefully one of us will be right behind it to grab the other one. We should let them get close and then make a path for someone."

"Tick! Tock!" Glaed shouted out. "Better hurry or the offer is rescinded and they both die now."

"Alright!" I shouted. "We'll give up."

"Good choice. Now toss your weapons over here." Glaed said looking rather accomplished.

We tossed them in front of us, but not too far away. She sent the monsters to gather them. As they did I moved my shadow away from us hoping that they were not paying that much attention. As soon as they reached the weapons we all moved in unison. We rushed them taking our weapons back and attacking. Cloud and Tifa moved ahead towards Glaed. I already knew what to do.

* * *

"Dammit!" Glaed said getting ready.

Siren already knew what to do, but she found that she also had a visitor. "You're so annoying!" She said remembering her from the lab. The shadow had her by the arm keeping her from using the knife in her hand to kill the hostages. At the same time it positioned itself closer to the nearest one making sure they couldn't be a target. "Hmph. You think you can stop me like this?" She said smiling. With her free hand she cast a spell setting the girl on fire. The shadow reacted at the same time and knocked her down onto a formation of rocks below. She coughed and slowly got up watching the shadow trying to put out the fire. Her screams were muffled, but still quite loud. It caught everyone's attention.

Glaed was busy dealing with Cloud and Tifa. Both of them attacked her furiously until they were in a state of deadlock. "Hmph. At this rate those two will be dead before you can save them." Glaed told them laughing.

"Not if we can help it!" Cloud said bracing himself. They were actually quite close to the hostages now and behind them Glaed saw her. Lilia ran up to them and used Cloud to jump up onto the cliff face behind them climbing up his back and jumping. Glaed could do nothing more than watch her. Tifa had her in a hold and Cloud made sure she could not attack them with her sword. She smirked and started pushing them back.

"To the hostages! Kill them!" She shouted. At the same time they heard screaming. All of them looked back at the hostages. One was on fire and Glaed smiled. "Good job Siren." She said under her breath. _It's almost time for me to use it._

As per her orders most of the monsters made their way back to the hostages. Lilia was there fighting with her shadow trying to keep them away from the hostages. Siren was back on her feet and knew what to do. She gathered some of the monsters and told them to distract them. She was going to take one of them so they still had something to use against them. She knew which one would be most effective.

As they fought, Siren moved quickly. She would not have a second chance at this moment and she knew it. The monsters did well helping her conceal her movements and somehow she managed to make it to the man she was after. He was watching everything. He was afraid, but there was also something else there. She knew that they had no idea who any of them were. She grabbed him and at the same time opened a portal she had to move him away from them. She ordered a few monsters to follow her as well. They grouped around them protectively and were gone, while the others fought off the two fighting furiously to reach them.

* * *

I was trying my best to help them, but it was hard with just the two of us and many of the monsters were now attacking us from all sides. Even with my shadow it was difficult. She protected one while I the other. I was trying to see if anyone could reach us. Cloud and Tifa were doing their best to hold Glaed back. She seemed to be waiting for something. I knew that they had gone through the trouble of planning all of this for us. I'm sure they even went over different scenarios. Still in a fight everything cannot be predicted. "Guys I need some help here!" I shouted hoping someone would hear me. At the same time I noticed that the monsters had surrounded me. _Damn!_ Before I realized it I sensed Siren with him and then they were gone. Some of the monsters had gone too. I cursed myself for not being able to do anything.

Once they were gone I heard Glaed calling the monsters to her. Finally, Cloud and Tifa managed to reach me. We all looked at the girl tied up lying on the ground moaning. She was badly burned, but still alive. Tears ran down her cheeks and a few involuntary movements told them she was in severe pain. Tifa was the first to speak to her.

"Don't worry, we'll get you out of here."

"I'll have the airship pick you two up." Cloud said getting his PHS. It was still connected as a means for the crew to speak to us. "Land somewhere close by to the east of us. We have a hostage who's been burned so any medicine should be ready too. Tifa will be bringing her."

"Got it, Cloud. We'll be waiting." They replied.

I just stood there watching her. My whole body was shaking. I had let them both down. Cloud put a hand on my shoulder to reassure me. Looking at her I had no idea if she would even survive. "I'm so sorry." I whispered to her as Tifa took her away. My shadow turned to me looking fired up. She was ready to keep fighting. Glaed was waiting. The others were attacking her little group thinning the number of monsters, but she did not appear worried at all. Once we were all back on the ground ready to fight she told all of them to stop fighting.

The monsters paused and a few got killed because of this. She looked at me and smiled. "I'm gonna let you in on something." She began. Everyone listened, but they were still prepared. I was ready too. "The main event begins now!" She said putting her hand on her chest. I felt something when she did it, but I was not sure what it was. "I'd like to show you all my true power. Give me everything that you have and nothing less, otherwise this won't be any fun!" She said.

I saw a faint change around her. Something was different. I could see flecks of something coming from her back. _Are those wings?_ We all felt her aura change. The air was different. The wind changed. No one moved for a moment trying to assess the change. She merely stood there with one hand in the air. The only sounds we heard was the wind and sand moving and the crew telling us that they had Tifa and the hostage safe and were returning to the air to help us.

Then her arm went down and the monsters reacted. She leapt into the air and hovered for a moment or two before hurtling down at us. Immediately I could see a difference. _She's much faster now and probably stronger too._ I was thinking as she and I crossed swords. She was mainly attacking me and everything was taking a toll on me. Part of me wondered if they actually got tired like everyone else. What was it really like for them being brought back from the dead by that man? She seemed to have more energy than before as if her excitement were fuel. "What do you think?" She said as we fought. The others were busy with the monsters so it was just us.

"It doesn't matter! I won't give up!" I told her as I went on the offensive. She easily avoided me and flew up into the air readying an attack. She held her sword pointed down with both hands. Before I knew it she was one the ground and the shockwave that came after knocked every one of us off our feet. I groaned as I turned over to see what happened. Everyone was on the ground covered by a monster or two and unable to move at the moment.

"You really should give up. Don't forget we still have him. Saving that girl is admirable, but I doubt she'll survive and if she does can you get her home? And like that what kind of life could she possibly have?" Glaed said. I got up being the only one able to do so. "Will you give up? If you do then we'll let him go home. He'll get to live a bit longer than if you refuse."

"I can't!" I shouted. "What difference would it make anyway? If I give up then everything that everyone has done would be meaningless; and so would all who have lost their lives. I can't let that happen!" I said charging her. I put everything I had in that attack. All of my feelings at the time, and all of my strength. She managed to block it and without too much effort pushed me off. The move knocked me off balance and I fell to the ground. For a moment I think I was knocked out.

"Hmph. Is that really it? Do you have nothing left?" She said almost looking angry. "This isn't fun at all." She said shaking her head. Out of nowhere the monsters all at the same time were set on fire. "What?!"

I looked up to see Phoenix flying over us. I looked around and everyone was on their feet again fighting. Cloud suddenly grabbed me pulling me away from her and telling me something. I was still trying to figure out what happened. He handed me an elixir and I drank it without even thinking. When it was gone I felt my head clearing up. "Lilia, focus!" Cloud shouted at me as he shook me.

"Stop!" I shouted back. "I'm ok." I reassured him. "What happened?"

* * *

Everyone watched as Lilia charged and Glaed easily fended her off. They all saw that she was at the end of her rope. Glaed's counterattack knocked her to the ground and she stopped moving altogether. Everyone watched as she sauntered over to her looking triumphant. They were all trying to quickly form a plan and no one was speaking besides the crew on the PHS. Cloud moved to silence it letting them know that now was a time for stealth. He sent out a quick message to everyone first before putting it away trying not to make any sudden movements. Everyone looked at him and he nodded.

That was the signal to move. Yuffie went first. She was small, quick, and somewhat a ninja when it came to stealth so it was not all that difficult for her. With her up and moving she easily drew attention from the others on the ground and one by one the monsters followed. Everyone slowly managed to get up and were fighting again.

Glaed noticed and put herself in a position to keep her prey. She was still out on the ground and quickly her monsters were being pushed back and a few had died. _They sure don't give up do they. Guess I have to admire that, because I can't give up either._ She was thinking. Cloud got to her and he swung and missed. She was more agile now and since her little change no one had landed a hit on her, not even Lilia.

Cloud fought Glaed doing his best to move her away from Lilia so they could move on to the next part of his plan. The main objective was to get Lilia and bail. Fighting this woman like this was not working. When he thought it was the right time he gave the signal. A few seconds later He heard the cries of the monsters and Pheonix as the summon did its job. Before him Glaed was fighting off the flames as well. He took this opportunity to grab Lilia who had only just woken. She was very dazed, but able to move. He handed her an elixir and did his best to explain the situation.

"There isn't much time. We have to move. This is a losing battle, Lilia. You were out for a little bit, but we managed to break free of her monsters." He said as they moved. He looked at her and the look she had made him worry. "Lilia." He said shaking her slightly.

"Stop! I'm ok!" She said pulling away. "What just happened?" She asked looking around.

"Glaed knocked you out. We used Phoenix to help you and attack her as well." He explained. "I think we should fall back and regroup. We're losing."

"I know. They planned this well, but we can't give up yet."

"We aren't finished yet." Cloud said.

* * *

Glaed and many of the monsters still standing had managed to fan out the flames. She didn't look too happy. She took a long look at herself and frowned. The fire had created holes and singed her clothing. She looked back up at us her expression never changing. Behind her Siren appeared. She whispered something to her and a smile crept across her face.

"Well, I have a nice surprise for all of you." Glaed said to us. "Since you insist on resisting and even managed to save one of the hostages here is a small gift from us." She said stepping aside. Behind her was a misty white opening. Siren had gone in and came out moments later with a rope in her hands. At the end of this rope was the man from before. The other hostage that my shadow and I had failed to help. He looked up at us looking defeated. _Has he lost hope that he'll live through this after what happened to her?_ I thought as I looked at him.

"Come now. These people came here to save you. Don't you care?" Siren said seeing his face. He said nothing and didn't move either. This made her upset to she yanked on the rope that was tied to his hands and neck forcing him onto the ground. "Hmph. Perhaps it would help if I told you a secret."

He remained on the ground coughing a bit from the sand in his mouth. All of us stood there watching. Part of me wanted to stop them. They were using him like a shield. Glaed watched us bringing the remaining monsters in close to cover them. We were trying to heal and recover while we had the chance.

"We know that you've been looking for someone. Well, what if I told you she was here." Siren said learning in low so only he heard her.

"I don't know what you people want, but you don't know anything about me." He replied in an attempt to show her that he was uninterested. "Just kill me if that's what you're going to do."

"Don't know anything huh?" She said laughing slightly. "Like how you're _daughter_ suddenly disappeared after being attacked? Or how you've been trying to find out who her real father was? Or that you still hope to find her?" She said. He remained silent closing his eyes. "You wouldn't recognize her anymore, but she's right over there and has been fighting to save you and that girl all day."

"Hmph." Was his response.

"I wonder what she'll do if we kill you right here in front of her?" Siren said thoughtfully. "We do owe it to her since they did break the rules."

"Just do it already." Glaed told her getting a bit restless.

"Listen up, Lilia!" Siren shouted. I looked up and noticed that he was now looking at us. He seemed to be surprised by hearing my name. I guess it had never been said in front of him. "It's time for us to end this. You broke the rules. Pretending to give up so you could rescue the hostages was a mistake, and now you will pay for it with his life." She said yanking him up to his feet. In her other hand she now held a knife and placed it against his throat. "That is unless you want to offer an exchange."

"NO!" He shouted. "I may not understand what this is all about, but it's never good to give in to people like them!"

"No one asked you!" Siren said tightening her grip on him.

"Maybe I'll cut him to pieces so she can watch?" Glaed said.

"Stop it!" I shouted back at them. "That's enough!" I said moving forward. Cloud grabbed me by the arm shaking his head.

"No, Lilia. He's right! We can't give up yet. There's a way." Cloud said. "They still need him as leverage so I don't think they'll kill him until they've completely exhausted their options."

"What do you say, Lilia?" Glaed said. "Will you give up for real this time to let him live. He did raise you after all." She said smirking.

"I-I can't do this, Cloud. Let go!" I told him. Cloud glanced at the others then at me.

"Sorry, I can't let you." He said nodding to the others. He immediately let go and moved in front of me as a few of them grabbed me tightly. "No matter what happens we can't let them get her. You'll have to forgive me, but we'll do the best we can to save you too." He said to him.

"I understand." All the while I was screaming at them all.

"Then I guess it's decided. Time to die!" Siren said with a smile.

"NOOOOOO!"

**Author:** I think this is the longest fight I've written in this story. What it's leading up to is what I got all excited over and wrote ahead. The idea was stuck in my head. I've also drawn some pics for this. One is actually an old drawing that I went and finished; and so it is probably one of the earliest drawings of Glaed I ever did. Both depict parts of the fight in this chapter.


	94. The Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 94 The Darkness

It was dark so suddenly. I stood in the darkness for a moment trying to figure out what happened. _Where am I? What is this place?_ I looked around, but it was futile here. There was no light so there was nothing to be seen. I stood there for a short while thinking almost afraid to move. If there were things out there in the darkness I could not see them. It was utterly silent here as well. The minutes ticked by as I stood there thinking. When it sunk in that standing around would do me no good I began to fumble my way around wondering if I would find anything. I could briefly hear voices and I was not very sure who they were or even where they were. I had the distinct feeling that I was forgetting something, but I could not seem to remember.

"What's going on? Is anyone there?! Where am I?" I shouted out into the dark. No one answered and the faint voices that I had heard had faded as well. It was completely silent. So quiet that it scared me.

"Nooooo!"

The cry came out of nowhere and it seemed to trigger something in me. I doubled over in pain and I saw flashes of blood and heard coarse breathing. I crouched there shaking and crying for a little bit until I heard a voice. I looked around and realized that someone was talking to me. I could not see them nor did I know if they were really there with me. The voice seemed to be all around me as it reverberated all over.

"It's alright. Everything is ok now. It will pass and soon it will be over." A voice rang out.

"Who's there?"

"A friend." It replied. "I'll make it all better soon. Trust me." It said in a silky tone.

It felt so comforting for a moment that I started to feel tired. The conversation was short and it told me to rest and let it worry about everything. For the moment I was inclined to listen and do as it said. I realized how tired I was and just how much I wanted to close my eyes. I have no idea how long I slept, but I woke up feeling a little better. I got up and still I was surrounded by the darkness. I called out, but no one answered. I even wondered if the conversation I had had was even real or not.

I felt that staying there was not going to do anything so I got up and began to walk hoping to find something. For a while it was quiet. The silence was deafening and it felt sort of lonely. I called out several times along the way to no avail. I began to wonder if I would be lost in there alone forever. I thought that somewhere there must be a way out or something, but after searching for a long time I lost hope of that. This place seemed endless. I finally broke down and sat on my knees crying feeling defeated. "Why is this happening?" At that moment I felt a flash of pain. I had no idea what it was, but it made me scream. I sat there shaking wondering what might happen next. When it returned a few times I was afraid to even move. "Make it stop!" I cried out. And to my surprise I received a response. I now realized that it had not been a dream. "Who are you? Where am I?"

"Right now that's not important. You need to rest. I can protect you. Here you have nothing to worry about." The voice told me.

"Nothing to worry about…" I repeated. "What brought me here?"

"They hurt you. I had to do it." The voice said. There was something there in the tone it used. Something I couldn't place. After that it was silent again. The voice said nothing to me for a while except that I should rest. Eventually I decided that there was nothing else I could do. I was in the darkness all alone. There was nothing to do or see. I had no idea where I was or what I should do. The silence grew and began to overwhelm me.

After a while my mind began to wander. Images flowed into view. Faces of people I could not quite seem to place. I wondered if I even knew who they were. I wondered, if I did, would they care that I was here all alone or not? Many of those images brought tears prompting the voice to speak and console me. It worked for a time but soon there were images that, no matter what was said, refused to go away and ignoring them here was not an option. Because of this they changed from mere images to possible hallucinations.

"There's so much blood! Where is it coming from?" I said as I cried out looking for an answer to this situation. "Why…why won't it stop?!"

"I'll take away all your pain." The voice rang out all around me reverberating in the darkness. "Nothing can hurt you here if you just accept my help. If you do that, you'll never have to hurt ever again!"

"How do I do that…." I said in a weak voice. I was doubled over in pain.

"Just rest and put your mind at ease. I'll take care of everything." The voice told me.

* * *

Cloud and everyone leaped away as the darkness spread around her. Lilia was a danger to them just as she was to the enemy. Glaed lie there dismembered and bloody next to the corpse of the man she had killed. All of them were surprised by this, but many of them had seen hints of something happening due to recent events. Cloud had been the most worried that she was going to lose herself. It had only happened a handful of times, but nothing like this. She had always been able to keep things in check but not this time. What they had done was inexcusable, but they all knew this was not the outcome that they had hoped for.

The darkness swirled around her. She had only moved enough to raise herself from the ground and the darkness was starting to cover her entire body. Glaed was still alive and though there was a moment where she saw nothing but darkness she soon realized that it was not because she was dead. It was because of that girl.

"What did we do?" She whispered to herself. "It'll take time for my body to heal. The way she is now…can we even stop her?" She had used up the power that Scythe had given her. The turn of events had been quite the shock for her and her comrades. The monsters were gone. All killed in one attack from the darkness that now slowly was spreading across the area. _Even her friends are keeping their distance_. _Now what do I do? Will he kill me now that I've failed?_ Her thoughts shifted as she noticed that the girl was starting to move, but now she looked very different. The look in her eyes in that moment looked almost dead, and the strange glow that they had actually frightened her. Suddenly they were different altogether. _It's like she's a different person…._

The darkness now covered her body completely and parts of it flowed out from her back like wings. Her entire body was now covered in darkness from head to toe. Her face was different now. Her eyes glowed yellow and there was a strange wide opened toothy smile stuck on her face. She looked over at Glaed and saw that there was still life in her and frowned. "You're still alive huh. Well, we'll have to fix that." She said sounding different.

Glaed frowned. In her current state fighting back was not really an option. She growled in frustration. She also noticed something else. The body of that human was gone now. _Did the darkness swallow him up?_ She was wondering. But her thoughts were interrupted as she saw several large spikes forming around her. The smile had returned to her face as she laughed slightly. It made Glaed think, if only for a moment, how alike they really were. _The way she is now is all rage. I was like that too before they killed me._

The spikes moved fluidly and then stiffened suddenly if for a moment. The smile on her face widened; at the same time the spikes moved towards Glaed piercing her over and over turning the dismembered body into smaller pieces. Even if she wanted to regenerate her body now it would be impossible so long as _she_ was there. She knew that unless Scythe undid the spell he placed on her she would not die, but being like this was unbearable for her. _Scythe if you can hear me either kill me now or do something!_ She was screaming in her head. Now she was small bits of flesh, bone, and blood. She no longer had a working mouth to speak and the darkness was starting to consume her as well. _Now what…._ She thought._ Is this really how things are going to end?_

She fell into the darkness and felt the weight of herself being lifted away. She was not even sure what this meant. She knew that wherever this was she was not alone here. That man was here too and though she could not see him she could hear him calling out to something. Even though she knew he was dead she found herself wondering. Had Siren really killed him or is this just a form of limbo or something else?

Lilia turned away from Glaed now that she was gone and focused on the other group of people gathered around her. All of them kept their distance, but none of them were out of danger. The smile was still there and it was disturbing to many of them. The way she held herself was like a predator on the prowl. They were prey. Cloud was the closest so she went after him first. A few tendrils of darkness flowed over to him without any of them noticing a thing. The darkness was slowly spreading out further from her body and she used that to hide what she was doing.

"There has to be a way." Cloud was muttering. "There must be something we can do to stop this. What will happen if we don't?" Cloud shook his head not even wanting to think about it. Seeing what she had done to Glaed actually turned his stomach. His thoughts were interrupted as he started to get a strange feeling. _Something is wrong._ He was thinking. He reached for his sword as he looked around him.

"Cloud!" Tifa shouted at him just as he saw the tendrils coming at him. One just grazed him as he jumped back pulling out his sword hoping that it would serve as a shield. "Cloud, are you alright!?" Tifa said looking him over. He merely nodded as he grabbed her and ran.

"Everyone pull back now!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. "Back to the airship!"

"What!?" Tifa exclaimed. "We're just going to run away and leave her like that?"

"What choice do we have? We need to regroup. Maybe if we give her some space she'll have calmed down a little bit." Once on the airship they left Vincent to watch her movements as they tried to come up with a way to stop her.

"How are we supposed to stop her? As she is I don't even know if Lilia is the one we're dealing with." Cait Sith said. All of them were having the same thought.

"When we were in their world…the Shadow Realm as she called it…we couldn't even hurt it." Yuffie said. "Honestly, I thought we were going to die." She said looking a little bit sheepish.

"I think we all did." Cloud said trying to make her feel less alone. He had been frightened to. Something like that was on a whole different level than they were. This was no different.

"I think this is similar to what happened at Nibelheim and I have noticed other times when it surfaced, but I think then she was able to control it and keep it in check. I'm not sure what it is really, but I don't think it's as simple as saying she's the one doing this." Cloud said.

"Perhaps this is our doing." Cait Sith said referring to Shinra.

"What do you mean?"

"There was an incident once that Rufus mentioned in passing, but he never filed an official report. And also there was another time when some rebels attacked the building while Hojo was doing one of his experiments and he recorded the footage of what happened. She killed them all and I'm almost certain that it was not something she would normally do, but she may have developed another personality."

"Another personality…?" Cloud said. "You may be right." He said finally.

"I believe so. The trauma from the fight and recent events may have caused her other personality to take over. She may be trapped inside of herself right now while that one goes on a rampage of its own. None of us know what this personality is thinking or what it wants to do."

"Well right now she's given up on us. She may have just lost interest and I'm not so sure that it's because she simply can't reach us up here." Vincent said. "However, now she's turned her attention to the people living in Cosmo Canyon. She's moving slowly, but she is making her way over there."

"Perhaps this is an attempt to get our attention?" Cait Sith said.

"Or maybe she realizes that we're afraid of her and isn't worried about us!" Yuffie said shivering. She had seen a lot of things, but she had never seen that before. The image of that woman being torn apart would not leave her mind. "How can we possibly stop her?" She said shaking her head. A hand rested on her shoulder as Tifa tried to comfort her. She could only manage a weak smile. They all felt apprehensive about fighting her as she was. It was probably the most dangerous thing they would ever do. Her power was frightening.

"Whatever we do, we have to make sure she doesn't hurt anyone. We might have to hurt her. I don't think we can just talk to her." Cloud said.

"You're right. At this point Lilia can't hear us. If we talk she probably won't listen." Cait Sith told them. "We might need to knock her out. However, with that darkness covering her she's protected and I have a feeling that the alter personality knows how to use it much better than she does. We're all risking our lives by doing this."

"He's right. This is a defining moment among all of us. If you're not willing to do this because she's our friend and you don't want to hurt her, or are afraid of her, none of us would blame you. We need to work together in order to do this." Cloud told everyone. They all just nodded and no one said anything about going anywhere or staying on the airship. It made Cloud hopeful that they could save her and stop Sephiroth too.

"We need to first get her attention and I suggest we lure her away to another location." Cait Sith said. "I'll see if I can get some sedatives to use as well. If we can we should use them. It will definitely help us. Hopefully, Lilia will realize what is happening and returns to normal on her own." He finished. Everyone nodded and immediately started searching for a secluded area that might make it easier for them to defend themselves until she was subdued. Vincent went back to watching her movements. Once they were set on what to do and where they sent the fastest of them to go and lure her there.

* * *

I walked in the darkness trying to find out if there was anything other than darkness here. I just could not accept that there was nothing out there. I found nothing after what seemed like hours or maybe even days. The voice was ever present. It was lulling and I stopped several times finding myself too tired to move anymore. "How far does this place go? Have I even really moved?" I said slightly frustrated. "What is this place?!" My voice echoed out into the darkness and disappeared seconds later. It made me feel very alone.

The next second I saw an image in my mind. Someone was covered in blood. Their eyes looked so sad, but who were they? I could not seem to remember. I found that image rather disturbing. _Why did I keep seeing those things?_ It had kept happening while I walked. Flashes of bloody images, and for whatever reason they refused to go away. "You promised to make the pain go away."

"It takes time. You need to forget those things. If you forget then the pain will go away." The voice said.

"I should…forget…but…what am I supposed to forget?" I said crying.

* * *

"The world is mine now. She's stuck in there and I'm out here. Hahaha! Isn't it great?" Lilia said twirling around. She looked up at the sky where they had fled to. "Hmph. Running away, that's no fun at all. I finally get to play and do whatever I want and the prey goes and runs." She said frowning. "Perhaps I'll play with those people." She said looking at the town nearby. "Maybe that will get their attention. They're the only ones here worth fighting anyway, even if they would just die." She said as she moved towards it.

She moved slowly making sure that they could easily see her. She wanted them to follow. She knew that there were few people on this world that were worth fighting. She had always waited for this moment, but now was not really the timing that she was hoping for. At the moment most, if not all of the people she would have deemed worthy of a fight were dead and the only one left was Sephiroth. These people would do for now. Besides there was still one thing that she had to do otherwise these plans would not mean anything.

"That's right…sleep…and let me take over." She said to herself. "Once you forget about everything…and let go of it…you'll never wake up again." She said smiling. She let the darkness flow out from her. "You were never able to control it like this." She said as it turned into mist. Now she was no longer covered having little fear of anyone attacking her. Of course, in her mind she was still working on her. For whatever reason, it was harder than she had anticipated. In the state she was in she hoped that this would be simple. Her mind was making it difficult and she had a feeling that there was other interference as well.

As she walked she began to notice something. Within the darkness she was spreading small specks of light appeared. It happened twice. The second time she felt something. Pain. It brought her to her knees. She was not entirely sure what this was or what it even meant, but she had the feeling that it was not over. Once it subsided she noticed something else. Those people had started to move. She had covered some distance and in her mind made a note not to let them distract her. She knew what they might try. It was something she had seen while on the other side. They loved protecting things.

"Trying to get my attention are we? Well, I can ignore you if I like…until I'm ready that is." She said laughing to herself. Then another jab of pain went through her. "What is it?" She asked. "Can't be her." She said trying to work through it. If it were going to continue she wanted to know what it was and knowing that meant knowing how to end it.

_I'm afraid there's nothing you can do to stop it._

"What?!" She was surprised hearing a voice like that around her. Part of her was not even sure why that surprised her so. Hearing voices was commonplace to this girl. Why should it be any different now? "Who are you?"

_You should already know that._

* * *

While I slept, wandered around, shouted, cried, and felt pain, the voice always said the same thing until suddenly it was different. It changed completely making me wonder if were even the same one. The tone changed as well. The voice always had a hint of something, but this one seemed completely different. It was soft and kind. As I cried, due to the unrelenting images of blood and violence, this new voice gave me comfort. Somehow it made me feel less alone than the other one had. Why this change happened I did not know nor did I care.

"Are you different from the other one? Who are you? Where is this?" I asked sniffling every few words. For a moment there was silence making me wonder if the new voice had only been my imagination.

_The other one is different. I am here to help you, because we're friends._

Suddenly the voice felt more tangible, as if there was a person there somewhere in the darkness saying this. I looked around, but the darkness was too thick. "Where are you?"

_You can't forget. No matter what she tells you, you must remember yourself and what happened. It will be painful, but you can't let that stop you. I have faith in you. We all do._

The voice said before dissipating. I felt so alone after it was gone. There was only immense silence for a long time. I thought about what the voices were telling me. One felt isolating while the other one felt inviting. The question was which one was telling the truth? After thinking about them both I started thinking about why I was here. What had led me here? Was it to flee the pain? Was it something else? What happened that one wanted me to forget and the other said I couldn't? "What am I supposed to remember? What happened?" I said thinking. "Why can't I remember?"

"You should forget about all of that. She's lying to you! If you remember it will only lead to more pain. If you remember it will only destroy you!" The first voice said ringing out. "I am only here because of you. I am here to protect you from the things that you couldn't handle. And you…until now, have remained blissfully unaware." It went on.

"You're here to protect me? But why? I don't understand." I said struggling. I felt like something was squeezing me. "Why do I need you to do that? I don't even remember the reason…." I said with tears flowing down my cheeks. "The things I've been seeing…what are they?"

"Fragments…of the times when I protected you." The voice said. "All you have to do is accept my help. Then this will end. No more pain, fear, anger, or tears. No one will ever be able to hurt you ever again."

"I don't know…if I should…."

"You have to decide for yourself. I'm only telling you the truth. If you can't accept it…then I'm afraid we'll both disappear." The voice said almost in a whisper. After that it was gone.

"Could it be right? What should I do? Why is this happening?" I felt the pressure around me subsiding. The force holding me was gone now. All I could do was sit there and cry trying to understand what was going on and what I should do.

* * *

Siren opened death and ran as fast as she could to the Abyss. She knew she would be safe there. Seeing Glaed be dismembered by her told her that she was no match and that staying was not a good option. She wondered what would happen to her when she returned to him. Would he be angry with her? She knew that he was watching and that meant that he already knew.

When she arrived the air felt thick. She slowed as she knew she was safe here, but something made her hair stand on end. The feeling she had frightened her. _I'm sure that he's angry. Of course, he is._ She was thinking. _This cannot be the end yet. We made a mistake, but there's still a chance isn't there?_ She thought as she got closer to the center. The air was suddenly full of static. Her hair lifted up and sparks of electricity flickered subtly.

"Scythe?!" Siren watched him now feeling his aura lashing out around her. She now realized that this was what she had felt upon arriving. She hesitated to move closer or even speak to him at this time. Obviously what happened came as a surprise to them, but it did make her think of something that Simon had told her just before the battle began.

* * *

"All of our destinies have been decided. None of us, not even he, can escape the fate that awaits us." Simon said as the set up for their attack.

"Are you saying that our dream is just that?" Siren asked him. He merely nodded saying nothing more as he left saying that she would never see him again.

* * *

She remembered it and now she too wondered if it were true. Were all of them just delaying the inevitable? And what would happen to them when it was all over. She knew from things that Simon said that souls are recycled, but not all of them. Sometimes a soul is kept and never released again. _Could that happen to us?_

"Siren." Scythe said suddenly. His voice boomed around her.

"Y-y-yes?" She said sheepishly.

"I made a mistake." He told her. "I didn't see this as a possibility." He continued. "It was a fatal error. However, from what I have seen I believe that there is still one last chance, but it will be difficult. It seems that I may have to leave here." As he spoke his aura lessened as he gained control over his emotions and quelled his anger. Siren was relieved by that.

"What do you want me to do?" She said saluting him as a show of her loyalty. She did not even hesitate.

"We will have to wait." He said. "I am sure that somehow she will return to her normal self, but she will be drained I'm sure. Shortly after that I know they will go to face him. Sephiroth." He said frowning slightly.

"Sephiroth…." She repeated. "If he fights us that would make it very difficult." She said knowing that she was not a match for them. It was the main reason that she did not participate in the fights against them. She was not the strongest, but she had other talents that he could put to use and that was all she really wanted. "Even so, I will do anything if you ask it of me." She told him.

"I know you will." He said turning around. She looked at him and noticed something was different. He could see that his appearance affected her. "It's merely a side effect of calling forth those monsters." He explained wanting to remove those thoughts from her mind. It seemed to do the trick and he moved on.

"I need an alternative. If I am to lose this fight then I plan on taking her with me. How this will end only it knows." He said looking at the Abyss. It perplexed him a little that he had been played by this thing. A device that in itself only did as it was meant to. He wondered how long this had been decided and if there really were ever a way for him to get what he wanted.

"Scythe…." Siren whispered behind him as he stared at it. "What do you need?"

Her question got his attention and he thought about what he could do. _If anything I could use that on her, but it would have to be done before anyone noticed._ He thought. "To do that I'll need something of hers." He said thinking aloud.

"Oh, I could probably get that." Siren said remembering that they might still have some of her things in the Shinra building. "If not then I might have to take something from her person or their airship."

"That might be useful. See what you can find, but it must be something that would contain DNA. Otherwise it will be more difficult. I won't have much time." He said wanting to make sure that she did not waste their time.

"That scientist will have that for sure. He kept hair and blood samples from all his subjects. I'll start there, but I won't be able to just walk in. They must have seen that I took her. Then I didn't care because I never imagine having to go back." She said trying to find the easiest solution.

"You should hurry. You have very little time to get this done. That building was damaged I believe. It may be harder to find what you need." He told her.

"True, but I think that will make it easier. They'll be too busy with recovery efforts to notice me." She said smiling at him before turning on her heel and leaving knowing exactly where to go. She felt like she was doing something important for him. This was one of her talents and she was useful now. She knew that now there was no one else that he could send out. Simon had vanished and she had no idea that Scythe had already killed him. Now Glaed too was gone. She was not entirely sure if she were dead, but she had just seen her swallowed up as she made her escape. She did not question these things and now felt that they no longer mattered. "I have to do this. No one else is here so I must not fail." She told herself.

* * *

The flashes now came as little movies. No more voices for a long time as I watched them. At first I was confused by what I was seeing, but then I realized they were familiar. I began thinking that they were memories that I could only assume were what one of them had mentioned as the times they had protected me. The first one was one that I felt was very familiar. "I think I remember this…why would I be seeing this one? What's different about it?" I asked the air. There was no reply. I had not truly intended it for anyone. For a long time my questions went unanswered.

There was a laboratory with a few people. I was on a table listening to explosions that I assumed were coming from floors below. Suddenly they were close and I was being lifted. There were more people and a man in a white coat gave me something. The face I made when he did that was strange to me. I watched as it changed. From my point of view it looked like it might be a different person altogether and I had no idea what might be going on on the inside. I watched myself use my shadow to kill them ripping out their hearts. Then there was the moment where I stood there staring at the bodies as the blood started dripping from their bodies, until something else caught her attention.

I watched her turn to the man in the white coat for a moment as she readied an attack. The people around her acted quickly and gave her another shot of something. She fell, but when they placed her back on the table only I could see that something else was happening. Darkness covered her and a strange smile spread over her. She sat up and glanced around. The bodies on the floor caught her attention. The two that had placed her on the table were now standing there beside them facing away from her. The man in white was busy doing something and did not notice her at all. She stood and tendrils of darkness protruded from her body and grew until they were only a few inches from them. They paused for a moment and then plunged into them ripping them apart. There was a very brief cry from them as they realized what was happening. At the same time the tendril tore at the dead bodies as well as if just for the fun of it.

Now the man noticed and for a brief moment watched in surprise and then reacted grabbing a vial of some liquid and a needle trying to get it ready almost shaking. I wondered if it were fear or excitement. There was a smile on his face, but his eyes were different. He managed to get close and when she was done she had thrown most of the darkness covering her at her prey leaving various parts of her body unprotected. He took advantage of this and without pausing he thrust it into her neck. Her face went from one of glee to that of surprise and anger. She tried to react, but whatever he gave her was strong and the effect was almost instant. She dropped to the floor hard and with that the memory faded.

After watching that one I wondered how many there really were. I was doing my best to keep count of them all and I did seem to remember a few of them, but there was always more to them than I recalled. The feeling that it gave me started to bother me. This thing that claimed it was protecting me looked more like it enjoyed killing them and the more blood the more it smiled. I started thinking that this person was not telling me everything.

"You enjoyed doing those things didn't you?" I asked it. "I don't know if you can hear me, but I've seen what you did and from what I can tell you weren't doing any of those things for me!"

"Is that what you really believe?" The voice replied. "What about this time?" It said bringing up an image of a man holding me up off the ground chocking me. I struggled for a moment and then I watched my hands fall. "You asked for my help then and I provided it."

Suddenly a thought occurred to me. I remembered something about this event. "But you tried to hurt my friends. I had to stop you."

"I warned you about that too. In that state seeing friend from foe is more difficult and I was not fully in control. With you awake it's more difficult to control."

"That's not an excuse!" I shouted. "If you were protecting me then you would not hurt people that were trying to help me or weren't even involved. Some of the things I saw showed me that you enjoy killing people. You relished those moments didn't you?"

The voice grew quiet and then it began to speak this time sounding different. "I see. She's done this. Showing you those things like that. But none of them even show you why they had to be done. She's trying to turn you against me. If you believe her then I guess I can't stop you."

"It doesn't matter what context they're in the look on your face tells me everything! You smiled when you killed them and you kept tearing them apart even after they were dead. There was no need for that! Tell me you didn't enjoy what you did?"

"No…it had to be done. I thought that if they saw our power, they might fear it and stop hurting us, but it didn't seem to work that way. Unfortunately, after a few times they got smart about it and made it harder for me to even help you at all! I had to do something!"

"I'm starting to remember now. I had a husband to protect me, and now I have a lot of friends who would do the same! I don't need you! I can't allow you to do horrible things like that to people I care about. What if they were my friends you killed?!"

"Hmph. Fine, but I won't let you out. You aren't the only one who can bend someone's mind if they wished. I'll just have to try harder!" The voice told me. The last part echoed over and over around me.

"Stop this! Let me out of here!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. The air became very thick and I felt something holding me tightly. Its grip was so strong I felt like nothing could get me free. "STOP! Please…." I said in tears. "Someone help me!"

"No one can help you now." It replied sounding cold.

**Author:** Well, you gotta wait for the rest of this part. Not quite how I thought it would come out, but I'm happy with this. Thanks to all who still read this. R&R and enjoy!


	95. No Mercy

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 95 No Mercy

Siren made her way through the Shinra building frowning at all of the damage. It seemed that everyone had abandoned the building so there were not too many people left inside. The Turks were diligently searching the building for survivors and whatever else, but she did notice that there few of them here as well. Navigating her way to the lab was made difficult by the damage as well. She had wanted to find a path there from the roof in case someone was still in there, but when she finally arrived there she realized that it was abandoned. Stray specimen were lying about dead or hiding in the shadows of the rubble.

She ignored all of this and headed to where she knew the samples would be. Hojo had been very diligent with his samples. They were labeled, alphabetized, and dated. This was probably the only time where this quality did not annoy her. She did recall that he had yelled at her quite a bit for getting it wrong a few times. She took what she needed only finding one of them intact and left with no incident feeling very accomplished.

"I did it, Scythe." She said handing it over to him. He took it and gave her a nod before holding it up to his eyes so he could look at it.

"I think this will work just fine." Scythe stated with a little smile. Siren smiled too feeling like she had helped him. He then turned to her and plunged his hand through her chest. She was so surprised that she screamed. "I will not have the power to sustain your life if I am to do this so I am afraid this is something I will need to do alone. You have served me well." He said pulling out her heart, which was not a normal heart. "This I gave you because unlike the others you did not die. Now I must take it back." He said as he crushed it. It broke like glass and the pieces turned to dust, then liquid and melted into his hand.

Siren fell to her knees with tears in her eyes. "I'm glad that I was of use to you. I'm only sorry…that I can't be here for the ending." She said looking back up at him. A part of her was sad that the face he made was not sad or emotional at all. "I love you." She said her voice cracking. He closed his eyes and turned away as her body fell silently to the ground of the Abyss. Moment's later darkness engulfed her body and both disappeared.

"You were the most loyal, but also the most foolish." He stated looking at the Abyss. "Now, shall we end this game?" He said to it.

* * *

Yuffie and Red ran making their way to Lilia hoping that their little plan worked at all. Yuffie was still unsure of this. She was afraid and at a time like this she did not want to just run away, but all of her instincts were telling her to run as far as she could. It took all of her will to keep going towards Lilia, whose aura had changed drastically. The very air around them felt electrified the closer they got to her. "We have to do this to save Cosmo Canyon and our friend." She told herself.

"We'll do it, Yuffie." Red said trying to reassure her. He felt frightened as well. His instincts were giving him a similar feeling to hers. He wanted to run, but at the same time he wanted to save his friend. It was a strange feeling for him having been in dangerous situations before. "We just need to lure her away so we can't run away."

"I-I know." Yuffie said shivering as she came into view. They stopped watching her for a moment. Yuffie grabbed her weapon, gritted her teeth, and leaped out throwing it at the same time. Red also moved coming from another direction. Lilia merely looked over in their direction and smiled not even flinching. She covered herself quickly and blocked the attack. Yuffie jumped back moving to catch her weapon as Red came up for an attack. The darkness reacted quickly and swiped him aside. He went flying and rolled and skidded along the ground a few times before he managed to catch himself.

"Oh. Is that all you can do?" She said smiling. "You're not any fun at all." She said turning away from them. "I think killing them will be more entertaining. The screams will be quite delicious." She stated.

"Oh no you don't!" Yuffie said darting in front of her. She attacked again only to watch it be deflected. _This is bad. I can't even hit her._

"You're worthless." She said looking annoyed. Yuffie tried again and again. Red did the same. Their main objective was to get her so annoyed that she focused on them and ignored the town completely. It was beginning to work, but it was not the only reason. She was doing more than just fighting with them. _Tch. She's fighting harder than I expected. This might take longer than I planned._ She was thinking as she swatted their attacks away. _They're so weak that they can't even get close. However, they are starting to annoy me. Perhaps I should stop playing around and just kill them._ She thought.

Yuffie noticed something different. Her instincts were telling her to run much more intensely then before. It seemed Red was having a similar feeling. Both of them had distanced themselves somewhat without even noticing it. When Yuffie saw the reason she realized that their idea may have worked too well. _She's ready to kill us now!_

"Run!" She shouted as she turned to get away from the tendrils that were coming to get her. She found herself trapped against a large wall of rocks. "Oh crap!" She said almost running into it. She quickly looked around trying to find a quick exit.

"This way!" Red shouted as he leaped up and over it. She followed not even glancing behind her almost afraid of what she might see. However, what awaited her was no better. Lilia was much faster now and seemed to almost move instantly as she wished. The thought frightened her, but she had to stay strong.

"Red!" Yuffie attacked and leaped over to him. He was being held against the rock face by the darkness emerging from her arm. She stood there looking at him with her head cocked to the side slightly. He could not move and Yuffie could not seem to help him. She managed to avoid getting caught, but she was afraid of leaving him like that. _What will she do to him?_

An explosion caught their attention and her grip on him lessened. He found that he could free himself and did so. Her attention was focused on the explosion. They both took this opportunity to move around her. When she looked back she cursed as she realized what happened. "Their friends must have been concerned and distracted me so they could get away. Hmph. Well, that won't work again." She said following behind them. "You're not going to get away from me." She said almost gliding up behind them. She barely had to even run to catch up to them.

They ran as fast as they could and once they hit their destination they were gone. She stood there looking at the cliffs around her and the ocean before her. "Damn. How did I lose them like that?" She said frustrated. Suddenly she doubled over in pain. "Not again…." She once again heard the voice around her.

_You won't win._ It told her. _I won't allow it._

"Who the hell are you?!" She shouted pounding the ground.

_You really don't know?_ It replied.

She growled in anger and stood back up frowning as she looked around for her enemy. "Tch. As if." She stated thinking that there is no way they were going to stop her and _she_ was not strong enough to do anything. _Soon it won't matter._ She thought to herself. She almost laughed at the thought.

Not far away Cloud and them watched her for a moment while they attended to Yuffie and Red. Both had been injured, but their fear and adrenaline had kept them going. At the moment they were not going to be much help. Her sudden apparent pain and shouting caught their attention.

"What do you think is going on in there?" Tifa asked Cloud. He just shook his head as he watched her. "I hope this works and we get her back." Tifa said in a whisper, but Cloud was so close he could hear and without realizing it had nodded in agreement.

"Whatever happens, we have to stop her." Cloud said almost fearing what that might mean.

"We have to save her." Tifa replied to him. He merely nodded and got ready.

"On my signal we go. We can't waste time." He said to everyone. They all nodded and silently got ready. He got into position and watched her for a moment making sure everyone was ready. Then with a quick movement of his hand they all were off.

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The hold on me tightened and I tried to fight back, but it was difficult. I was all alone there and at the same time I felt exhausted. I tried to suck in as much air as I could feeling the breath leaving me and fearing that I was dying. The urge to close my eyes and sleep was growing as I began to lose strength. I felt tears streaming down my face. The pain was unbearable.

"Give up!" The voice shouted to me. "No one can help you here! If you just accept it then this can end and you won't have to feel pain or anything else for that matter. Wouldn't that be better?" It told me.

"Aaaah! No! I don't want that!" I said almost chocking as I did. In those moments images of what I assumed were memories from my life came to view. If almost frightened me to see these things feeling that it meant I was going to die. I saw smiling faces and fond memories of friends, family, and people I had lost. The last one was very different from those still images. I knew as soon as it was done that it was the reason I was here. "I-I remember now."

* * *

Siren stood there holding the knife to his throat and Glaed stood close by ready for anything. When Cloud made the decision to stop her from going to them he knew in the back of his mind that this was not going to end well. In this he was right.

"Then I guess it's decided. Time to die!" Siren said with a smile. In that moment the knife cut into his throat and there was a moment where everyone looked on in disgust. It was a moment that for some lasted too long. Slowly as the blood ran down his neck and Siren let go he fell to his knees first as he looked at the group before him.

Lilia, he could just see her as she struggled against them trying to reach him. Many of them stood there with their heads hung while the others stopped her from going. He wondered in those moments if it were true what she had said. Was that her? She looked so different. _If that is you…I wish that I could have told you the truth. I love you._ A smile crept onto his face as he fell into the sand his eyes now going dark as the life left him.

Behind him Siren and Glaed watched. The reaction they got made Glaed smile. _That's right. Suffer!_ She thought as she watched her. "Now you understand don't you. The games are over now." Glaed said to them. "Hand her over. Or more people are going to die." She said walking over to his body giving it a nudge to show that he was gone. "Or should I take apart the corpse?" She said lifting him up slightly by the arm as she looked at them.

Cloud stood there with his head down shaking. "You're despicable." He said sounding angry. "Now you have nothing! No one to hide behind! You will not get away with this!" He said lunging at them. The others followed behind him now releasing Lilia who could do nothing more than stare at the body of her former parent. Not even paying attention to the others as they fought with Siren and Glaed she made her way over to his body wanting more than anything for him to still be alive.

She cried over him and untied his restraints placing his head in her lap. "I'm sorry. This is my fault!" She said holding him. Everything around her was ignored as she looked down at him. His eyes were still open so she closed them hoping that he was in a better place. The next moment Glaed was behind her and without wasting any time she attacked. No one was close enough to stop her and while they were fighting had been trying to keep them away from her not knowing if Lilia was capable of defending herself in her grief.

The moment her blade slashed across her back it was over. Lilia slumped over his body covered in his blood and now her own. Everyone rushed over to her hoping to keep Glaed from taking her, but they soon realized they were all in danger. The darkness erupted from her body engulfing a small area around her including where Glaed stood. She leaped back trying to avoid it, but it caught her and ripped at her body. She let out a scream realizing too late what they had done. The darkness quickly went from mist to a more solid shadow mostly on the ground radiating out in a circle slowly moving out away from her destroying anything in its path mostly consisting of monsters. Glaed was now stuck enclosed in the darkness and Lilia suddenly moved. First an arm moved to lift her up and as she slowly sat up the darkness covered her and began to engulf anything around her as well. Soon his body was gone and only the dismembered Glaed remained in the area. Everyone else had managed to move away.

* * *

_That's right. That's when she pulled me back. When she attacked me that was all she really needed to do it. I can't give up yet!_ "AAAAAAAAH!" I screamed from the pain and my voice had become hoarse from screaming. Now that I realized what was going on I felt that perhaps there was something that I could do. _I've done it before I just need to be free and then find her!_ I thought as I struggled to breathe. The tightening hold on me was only getting stronger and stronger. Suddenly I felt it weaken for a moment. I took that moment to breathe in deeply and prepared to fight back.

"I'm not done yet!" I shouted as I used what strength I had to push back the force she was using. However, even with that I was still unable to break free. "Damn…I can't…."

_Let me help you._ A voice said. It sounded so close to me that I actually turned towards it thinking that I was going to see someone there. Without much warning a bright light erupted around me. It was so intense that I thought it might have blinded me. Almost instantly the force that had been holding me was gone. I took a few moments to breathe and sat there on my hands and knees trying to recover.

"Thank you." I managed to say. "Thought I was a goner."

_This way! Hurry!_ The voice said as a small light danced in front of me like a small firefly. I got up and followed the light wondering who or what it really was. At the moment that didn't matter. I had to find and stop her.

* * *

As Cloud and everyone moved to attack she saw them and covered herself getting ready for the onslaught of attacks they were throwing her way. She merely stood there and let them attack her. They seemed to be careful not to use any magic on her only using it on themselves as defense or recovery. She understood why. After fighting that creature they were all too aware of what she might be capable of. She smiled at them and then let out an attack that went after all of them. They all made a run for it and disappeared among the rocks.

"Hiding won't save you." She said to them. She began using the darkness to destroy the area around them creating a large dust cloud as rocks fell from the cliffs and smashed into the ground. Some of them found themselves having to avoid the debris and as they came out of hiding the darkness was waiting. "Gotcha!" She said as she saw Tifa avoiding the debris. She appeared behind her at the same time and taking her time used the darkness to hold her against the cliff just a few inches off the ground. "Now what should I do with you?" She said tilting her head. "What should I remove first?"

"Stop!" Cloud shouted as he came down from above her using his limit hoping that it would be enough to force her to move away. She did not even flinch as the attack hit her full on and his sword went right through her. The smile that crept onto her face unnerved him.

"Fool." She stated and she released the attack she just absorbed. Cloud leaped away from it barely avoiding it. He looked at Tifa who was still trapped and struggled to free herself to no avail. The smile faded from Lilia as she put both hands on her head and groaned. "Dammit! No!"

"Lilia!" He shouted hoping that she could hear him.

She looked up and the darkness covering her moved away from her face. The look she gave him made him wonder. _Is it her?_ He thought as he saw the look of sadness on her face. "Cloud, please….help me!" She said with tears in her eyes. "I can't…stop her…." Cloud moved closer to her. He noticed that her hold on Tifa had lessened and she was now able to free herself partially.

"It's ok. We will." He told her feeling hopeful that they could save her. "Don't give up!"

"C-Cloud." She said collapsing on the ground shaking. He was unsure of what to do in that moment. Part of him wanted to go to her and see if she was ok, but he felt that she was still a danger to them. "Help me!" she said reaching out to him. The darkness covering her hand also reached out only making it out a few feet.

Cloud moved in cautiously only wanting to secure Tifa before doing anything else. Everyone else stood nearby watching, but ready. "Cloud, be careful." Tifa told him. She finally managed to free herself and moved over to him. His eyes never left Lilia. The way she looked. He found himself moving closer to her without even knowing it. His desire to help his friend moved him.

He was only a few feet away from her now. She looked up at him still tearing up and calling out for help. A moment later her face changed and she was on him before he could even move. "I told you you were a fool. Falling for a trick like that. You people really are gullible." She told him as she held him by the neck against the rocks. "Don't anyone move. I can kill him before you even get to us." She said covering herself completely. "I'm going to kill you slowly."

"Why are you doing this? Who are you exactly?" Cloud asked hoping to get her talking. Maybe he could buy some time for Cait Sith who was gone trying to get the sedatives from a nearby lab that someone had informed him of. It was their only hope at this point. Everything they did was useless.

"Why? What an absurd questions. Why?" She said narrowing her eyes at him. "Why not!" She stated laughing. "This is the first time I've been able to do as I pleased without her there in the background to stop me. This time I am the master!" She said lifting him off the ground.

"Who are you then?" He asked her. Doing his best to lessen the grip she had on him.

"Who? That's a good question." She said. "I'm whoever I want to be. I am her. I am no one. I am me." She said as she squeezed a little making him gasp. She was thoroughly enjoying this moment. Pain shot through her again. This time so intense that she let go of him and stumbled back a few steps. For a moment Cloud thought that she was bluffing again, but he soon realized that was not the case. "Who the FUCK are you!" She shouted holding her head and shaking. "Stop it!" She said stumbling again from the pain.

_You still don't remember? I'll give you a hint then._ The voice said to her._ I'm dead._

"It can't be! You!" She said suddenly realizing who it was. "Aeris…." She whispered. Cloud and the others regrouped and surrounded her.

"End this already. We won't let you hurt anyone!" Cloud told her.

"No." She said calming herself. "Not after I went to so much trouble for this. I can't give up now! I won't be beaten by you people!" She said letting the darkness swirl around her. All of them backed away slightly not wanting to touch it but remained at the ready. _I won't lose!_

* * *

As I followed the light I started to hear sounds. Voices crept in and I started to remember them. I realized I could hear my friends. At one point I even heard Cloud speaking to me. I wanted to shout out to him, but I knew he would not hear me. "Hold on guys, I'm coming." I whispered. The light led me to a dimly lit place where a figure stood looking out through a window. Outside of it was a desert with all my friends and her standing in the center. I wasted no time. I ran up to her and she turned just in time to get a fist in the face.

She fell to the ground and looked up at me in surprise. "So you found me. I suppose that dead girl helped you." She said.

"It's over now. I'm taking back my body and I'm going to get rid of you!" I told her. She just stood up and smirked at me.

"Is that so? Are you sure you want to do that?" She asked me. "Do you really know what that means?"

"It doesn't matter. I can't let you do whatever you want!" I said attacking her. She deflected and came back with a pretty strong punch that knocked me back. I was still a little tired from struggling earlier.

"Haha! Is that all you've got. If so, then you're going to lose." She said giving me another punch.

"Yeah, but you're fighting two battles here." I said smiling. "Eventually, something has to give." I said kicking her feet. She fell to the ground and I jumped on top of her. She grabbed my arms and we struggled for a while before she managed to throw me off.

"Hmph. You think it'll be that easy?" She said jumping on me wasting no time getting a few punches in before I could react. She grabbed my arms and for a moment stared at me.

"You're friends aren't doing so well either. You really think they're going to win? Won't it be fun to watch yourself kill them all?" She asked me getting closer.

"You talk too much!" I said head-butting her as hard as I could. She didn't let go of me so I did it again. Her hands instinctively went up to her face to ease the pain and blood came from her forehead. I knocked her off of me and glanced over at the window where I could see my friends. "Hold out guys. Please."

* * *

Everyone stood there around her and she remained motionless for a moment glancing around herself at them and then the darkness swirling around her suddenly engulfed her and she disappeared. Cloud saw a small smile on her face just before it happened. He cursed, but the darkness still looming in front of them had not dissipated. He still felt danger there, but he was also worried that she might pop up behind one of them and attack. He said nothing not wanting to give anything away to her, but he wanted to say something to his friends.

It seemed all of them were wary of this as well. Many of them watched the darkness and glanced about them every once in a while. It wasn't until Cloud glanced down at the ground. Something had caught his eye. Something was missing. _Their gone! Our shadows!_ "Everyone be careful!" He noticed many of them had also seen them missing. They all knew what that could mean. Cloud slowly backed away from the darkness. As he did the others followed.

As if on cue their shadows sprang out from the darkness and attacked them. About half of them managed to block the attack while the others were knocked off their feet and were now struggling with their shadows. Cloud could see the fear in their eyes. This was a moment he had hoped to avoid. Whoever this was using Lilia's body knew how to manipulate the darkness and their shadows more effectively than her and that was bad for them. He wondered what they should do. He felt like they were running low on time and Cait Sith still had not returned.

They all fought hard for a moment. No one had seen Lilia since she disappeared into the darkness and at present none of them were able to even pay attention to more than the shadow in front of them. They found that this was a bad thing. They were all having trouble fighting with themselves. Because of this they ended up running into one another and their shadows had no problem dealing with more than one person. They moved differently and were more flexible so avoiding this or that was easy for them.

In mere minutes many of them were injured and few had the time to heal. Their shadows were relentless and they wondered if there was a way to turn them against their master. They did technically belong to them. A few of them did try and talk to them wondering if they heard or even understood. Lilia had spoken to hers, but it had never talked back. She seemed to understand her so it was possible. However, their words seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Cloud saw that everyone was having a hard time and so was he. He was injured and all the fighting was only making things worse. Suddenly, he felt something behind him. A chill went up his spine. His shadow attacked and he blocked it. They stood there for a moment struggling and he took the moment to glance around him. He saw her behind him and then he felt the weight on his sword disappear. He looked around and his shadow had disappeared. He whirled around feeling danger attacking at the same time and there Lilia was using her bare hands, still covered by darkness, to stop his attack. He struggled with her for a while. She stood there with her head cocked and gave him a rather disturbing look.

"Tell me something." She said to him. "Do you really think you can save her?" She asked.

"I won't let you hurt people!" He replied applying more pressure on her.

"Oho? Does that mean killing us?" She said smiling more. "Can you really do that?" She asked laughing slightly.

"Hmph. We're not going to do that. We'll save her!" He said as they struggled. She just laughed at his statement. "You're overconfident." He said to her. "That's why you won't win this!" He said pushing her back.

"You're all fools! You and that girl!" She said disappearing.

Cloud whirled around a few times unsure of where she went afraid that she might pop up again. He saw nothing so he went to help his friends. Before he could his shadow reappeared. Once again he found himself struggling to fight himself. _Pretty soon everyone will be so tired from fighting that it'll be easy for them to defeat us._ Cloud was thinking. _Cait Sith where the hell are you?_

Nearby she watched them fight. "That's right. Keep fighting until you die." She said smiling. "You're friends aren't doing so well. Do you really think they can stop me? Or you for that matter." She said laughing slightly. "Pathetic isn't it?"

* * *

"All of you are fools. As things stand now there's no way you're going to win." She said standing over me. I looked over at the window and saw that she was right. We were all getting tired of fighting and I had no strength left. I had held out hope, but at the moment I saw none. "Given up have we? Not much of a fight." She said. "Pathetic isn't it?" She asked.

"You are. Are you really so afraid to disappear?" I asked her.

"You have no idea what you're talking about." She replied.

"Perhaps not, but that's how I see it. You don't want to die."

"Shut up."

"Is death really that frightening to you? We've been there before. We already know what it's like."

"Hmph." She responded. "I tire of this game. Let's get rid of them now." She said looking at the window.

* * *

"Hmph. Time to end this." Lilia said leaping down to them. Everyone was still engaged with their shadows. As she landed they came to her.

"Why are you fighting us?!" Tifa shouted. She was speaking to her shadow. It seemed to hear her so she continued. "Before you were trying to protect us from that monster even though you were afraid. We were too! But this is ridiculous! We should be fighting together!"

"Talk like that is cheap. They listen to me." She responded for them.

"That's bullshit!" Cid said. "They don't belong to you and if they're anything like us they don't have a master!" He shouted.

All of them were tired and attempting to stall so they could heal. She just laughed in response and their shadows turned into mist and were gone. "Play time is over." She said in a cold tone.

"Get ready!" Cloud shouted. The look she gave them told him she was serious. He was a little frightened of what that meant. _We have to survive this! We can't die yet! And we have to save her!_

The darkness swirled at her feet for a moment or two and then it leaped out at everyone grabbing and pulling them to her. She locked eyes with Cloud and gave him a big toothy smile that made him cringe. "Tell me, will it hurt seeing your friend's face as you die?" She asked him. "It's just too delicious." She said licking her lips.

"We're not dead yet." He responded.

"Soon you will be." She replied as they were flung onto the ground. "I think I'll start with you." She told him as she drew closer. Cloud struggled and flinched when she was suddenly inches from him still smiling evilly. "I'll tell you something before you die. She can see all of this as well." She said laughing slightly at the end. "It'll be satisfying to kill you all while she watches."

"Do you really hate her so much?" Cloud asked her.

"Oh, no." She said shaking her head. "Without her I wouldn't be here. I did everything for her!" She said raising her voice. "I protected her! Not _him_! Not YOU! ME!" She said holding a hand out so he could see the razor sharp claws she was forming. She slowly ran one down his face leaving a cut that slowly got deeper the further she went. "And look how she has repaid me…." She said plunging the claws into his shoulder. He let out a grunt as he clenched his teeth. "Does it hurt?" She asked. As she did a shot of pain went through her. "Aagh!" She flung herself away from him and in the process cut open his shoulder making him gasp. Cloud watched her as she flung herself around cringing in pain and shouting.

"Aagh! Damn you both! Stop it!" She shouted. Her rant continued as she cursed and flopped about on the ground. In doing so she could not continue her hold on them and slowly they were all freeing themselves. No one moved, but simply watched her unsure of what they were supposed to do next. "I've had it! Enough!" She shouted as she flung herself into a standing position. She gave Cloud a rather crazed look and growled as she clenched her fists making them bleed. She looked at him and then leaped at him screaming.

Halfway to him she stopped completely and fell to the ground skidding a little bit from the momentum. He just stood there for a moment and looked at her unsure of what had just happened. As he got closer he saw that there was a small dart sticking out of her neck. "Phew! I made it just in time." Cait Sith said scratching his head and smiling.

Cloud knelt on the ground beside Lila turning her over. She was definitely out. "That sedative works quickly." He said sounding relieved.

"Actually, it hit her ten minutes ago." He said laughing a little. "It was the best I could do."

"Doesn't matter now." Cloud replied. "Hopefully she can do the rest."

**Author:** Getting pretty close to the end now. Scythe is now the only baddie left and what could he be scheming.


	96. There can be only One!

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 96 There can be only One!

We both saw that the window disappeared. Now we could no longer watch the fight with them meaning that we were asleep. "Looks like it's just you and me now!" I said smiling. _Good! They must have sedated me. Now I don't have to worry about them._

She was standing there shaking slightly for a few minutes before she started to laugh. "You think it's over then?" She asked me.

"That part is. Now it's just us. Time to end this!" I said running at her. She flipped around and grabbed me with a smile on her face.

"Oh my, then you'll all be in for a surprise." She stated throwing me down.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked as I got up.

"Wouldn't you like to know…." She said beckoning me to come at her again. "You'll find out…if you wake up that is!"

* * *

Cloud and everyone looked down at Lilia feeling very relieved that she was asleep now. It was all they could do really. He kneeled down and picked her up to take her back to the airship. As he did he glanced at the others to see how they were doing. A few of them were on the ground resting while someone else healed their wounds.

Above them the airship circled around waiting for them. Cid was telling them to come and pick them up. Cloud took one step and realized that something was wrong. He knew that he was hurt, but he felt like this was something different. He stopped and looked down at Lilia and noticed that little shadowy tendrils were crawling around on her and they were moving towards him. He looked up at everyone and noticed that most of them had stopped moving and these things were also on them.

The girls began to scream as these tendrils exploded around them and knocked them to the ground. Cloud saw everyone go down one by one and then he too was being attacked. He fell and ended up tossing Lilia away from him. He cursed as he saw his shadow next to him. "Now what?!" He asked it. "The one controlling you before is gone now! Think about what you're doing!"

It just looked at him, but he did see something different about it. His shadow reached out and for a moment Cloud was afraid of what was about to happen, but it grabbed the tendrils that were attacking him instead. He now was bound and being cut by them, and he knew that if that were to continue they would all be dead. He just watched as his shadow grabbed them by the handful and pulled them away from him and absorbed them into himself. "What are you doing?" He asked slightly confused by this. It said nothing in response, but continued to help him until all of them were gone. He sat there for a moment watching it. Then he looked over at the others and saw that their shadows were doing similar things. He looked at Lilia and wondered if she were doing this. "Can you tell me if you did this on your own, or if she did it?" He said flicking his hand at Lilia. His shadow gave him a smile and pointed at himself before disappearing.

Cloud stood up and went to check on everyone. Now everyone was hurt again and most of them were out of supplies. They would have to get back to the airship to heal up now. _I suppose that was her last ditch effort to get us. Lilia, you need to come back now. Hurry up and deal with her._

* * *

"Aaaah!" I lunged at her and she danced around like this was nothing. It was like a game to her. She seemed to have more energy now. _Maybe ending her other fight wasn't the best idea for my end. Now she's even stronger than before and I'm not doing any better here!_ I was thinking as she managed to dodge everything I threw at her.

"My, my. Even in here you're such a wimp!" She said taunting me. "I'm sure your friends have gotten their surprise by now. Wouldn't it be delicious if they were all dead and you woke up? Even if I lose in that scenario it's just too good!" She said laughing as she jumped over me and knocked me down. She was on top of me quick and one hand was shoving my face into the floor.

_Why can't I seem to get any headway here? What is it that is making her so strong?_

I struggled, but in that position it was just not enough to break free. She felt so heavy on top of me. "Just face it. You could never make the hard decisions. You were so weak that you couldn't handle what was going on around you. Even though you had him it wasn't enough because you still had to go through it all alone! That is why I am here. I exist because you are so weak! And now I am going to crush you!" She said into my ear. "And don't worry. I'll take care of all of them for you."

She grabbed a wad of hair and yanked my head up before slamming it into the ground and lifting it up again to look at me. She did this twice before asking how much it hurt. I just laughed at her unwilling to show her how much it really affected me. She kept doing it and I could feel my face starting to break. My nose was broken and it hurt so badly even though I knew it was not even really my face. It did occur to me that there was a possibility that it might actually affect me physically, but I was not very sure of that. Despite that, all I could do was laugh at the situation.

Here I am fighting myself, or a part of myself, and losing to it. It was laughable. She finally heard it and paused for a moment before beating me some more. It intensified now that she was getting angry. She hit me hard and for a moment I actually felt like I blacked out for a little bit. I was sure of it when I looked up at her and she was screaming and crouched nearby.

_What just happened?_ I was wondering as I tried to pick myself up. I guess I was getting tired of fighting her. It was hard to stand and I felt fatigued. My whole body was protesting getting up and even breathing. I managed to stand and just watcher her for a moment.

"It's not fair! Why is it like this?!" She shouted as she looked at me.

"What do you mean?" I was asking her. I missed something and I knew it. She just sat there for a minute just shaking her head and beating her fists into the ground. "What happened while I was out?" I asked her.

"Ask them!" She said pointing behind me. I looked and there were two lights there. I stared at them for a moment before realizing who it actually was. _Earth and Gaia? What did they do? _

* * *

Cloud and the others managed to get to the airship without any further surprises. Lilia was safely in her room sleeping and they were all getting themselves fixed up. Cloud found himself out on the deck of the airship staring at the clouds as they headed for town for more supplies. He stood there holding his right arm. The shaking would not stop. He knew it was just all the adrenaline from earlier. Fighting his friend like that had been hard for him, and frightening. He knew that some of the others might also have mixed feelings about what happened too. "Maybe I should talk to them and make sure they're ok." He wondered.

"Not everyone will want to." Tifa said making him jump. "Did I scare you?" She said leaning closer to him.

"Not really, I was just thinking."

"Well, I just talked with Yuffie. She's scared, but she said she could eventually get over it. Lilia is still our friend right?" She said giving him a questioning look. He just nodded to her. "I know you had doubts about her from the start. You might be able to keep things inside, but I could tell. You never fully trusted her did you?"

Cloud remained silent for a moment before answering her. "I don't know. There were times that she just seemed to know things…." He said shaking his head. "It made it seem like she was leading us somewhere and I wasn't sure that I wanted to follow her there."

"Yes, I think a few of us had those feelings, but things always worked out in the end." She said smiling.

"Before we left to fight Glaed, she asked me if I hated her." Cloud rested his hands on the railing noting that the shaking had subsided. He was relieved by that not really wanting anyone to see it.

"And what did you say?"

"No, but for a little bit I did." He said looking somewhat ashamed. "It crossed my mind that maybe she was somehow helping Sephiroth, but I couldn't really be sure of that. She had been keeping something like that from us, I wondered what else there was to hide." He said turning away from her sighing. "I was so unsure of everything, and in a way I fell for their little game."

"But you kept quiet." Cloud nodded to this.

"It was a rough time for all of us at the time. I felt betrayed when she told us the truth, but when I got back my memories…I remembered her, and Sephiroth before that last mission. I remember only meeting her a few times and the way he was around her was different than now. He loved her. I know that."

"It's a little strange hearing this from you." Tifa said shuffling her feet slightly. "I only met him at Nibelheim and I can't say when he first came that he seemed like a bad guy, but there was definitely something that seemed to be bothering him."

"Yeah. I had heard rumors of him doing strange things, but rumors were flying around about a lot of things. Strange things were going on back then. We might never know everything." Cloud turned around and saw a few of the others standing there listening. "How long are you all just going to stand there?"

"Not forever." Cid replied casually. "So I guess…now is the time isn't it?" Cid said giving him a serious look. Cloud nodded.

"How is…."

"She's fine, but she needs to rest for a while." Cid cut him off already knowing the question.

"When will she wake up?" Cloud asked looking at Cait Sith.

"Well, that might depend on her, but it should only last a few hours." Cait Sith told them. "However, if she loses to the other personality there is a possibility that she won't ever come back to us." Cait Sith hung his head when he said it knowing that Shinra had done this to her, and in a small way he was part of the reason.

"She'll be fine. I know that she would never give up." Cloud said sounding so confident in those words. Everyone just nodded. "I plan on staying on the airship, but I will be buying supplies for the upcoming battle with Sephiroth. I suggest when we touch down that all of you go and decide for yourselves whether or not you still want to continue on this path."

"I'm staying too." Tifa said. "Someone needs to look after you and Lilia. You shouldn't be alone in this and I don't have any reservations about going."

"Well, I'm sure there are people a few of us would like to see just in case this is our last stand." Barret said thinking of Marlene. "I for one am going to do that." Some of the others nodded in agreement. That was the last of that talk altogether. Everyone had decided what they were going to do. The next few days was just going to be them saying goodbye to their loved ones or maybe even looking for guidance in this situation. Once the airship touched down by Cosmo Canyon everyone departed all going their own ways and the airship was very quiet for those left behind.

* * *

"So…what happened?" I asked them. The explanation was pretty simple. They were worried that I would lose and at this point could not risk that happening. I had to admit that it was a fair assessment of the situation. She was a lot stronger than I could have ever thought. I was fighting a losing battle, but I never intended to lose.

"We made a choice. It may seem like you've failed here, but we're running out of time." Gaia told me.

"It's my fault this happened. I was too weak to handle things on my own." Behind me I heard a low growl. She was glaring at me. "I'm sorry. I don't know what else to say or do here." I said shaking my head.

"You're a coward!" She shouted. "If you really wanted to finish this you'd just kill me."

"I'm afraid that will be your fate in a sense." Earth told her. "You cannot be allowed to remain like you are and incidents like this cannot happen again. I'm sure you fully understand what it is that must be done. If he were to get a hold of us all then anything you do would be pointless. He would surely kill you in the end."

"Hmph. There's no way to know that for sure!" She replied as she turned away.

"We know." Gaia said with a final tone to it. "It's time to wake up now." She said looking at me. Before I knew it I was alone. All of them were gone and I stood in the darkness and slowly I could hear the familiar humming of the airship as I woke up.

* * *

"Tifa, are you sure that you want to do this?" Cloud asked her.

"Of course. I want to stay by your side and do what I can." She told him. "I've made up my mind."

"So have I!"

Both Cloud and Tifa almost jumped when they heard it. I stood behind them smiling and leaning against the wall of the airship. "Lilia?!" They both said coming over to help me. I just smiled at them.

"Where is everyone?" I had been looking around the ship and they were almost the only ones I found. "It's so quiet all of the sudden."

"They went to see loved ones and decide if they were going to fight him." Cloud explained. "And you should be resting." He said with a small smile. I knew that I looked a little beat up since I had checked that when I first woke up.

"Actually, I need your help to do something." Both of them looked a bit confused, but nodded. "First I'd like to know what happened to her…." I said with a frown. Both of them just lowered and shook their heads at me. "I see, then I guess we'll be burying two bodies…." I said feeling sad and somewhat defeated by the fact that we had not been able to save either of them.

"Two?" Tifa asked as Cloud helped me stand. I nodded in response before explaining.

"Yes. It seems that she held onto him for me. I'm not sure what happened to Glaed though." I said indicating my shadow.

"It's hard to imagine her coming back from that." Cloud stated. Thinking about it made him shiver slightly.

"Unless the spell is taken off of them they can't die, even like that." I told them frowning. I was wondering if he had done it or not.

"I imagine he would have given the situation." Tifa said thinking it seemed like the logical thing for him to do. Everyone agreed, but we still felt a bit unsure of it knowing that we could not verify it.

"So where will we be burying them?"

"I don't really know for sure. I think it should be somewhere nice, but I don't want anyone disturbing it." All of us were thinking and wondering where would be the best place. "I know! Usher said Shinra hardly goes near Gongaga, and they have a cemetery!"

"It's not far; we could fly over there and be back here by nightfall." Cloud said thinking it over.

"That sounds like a good place. And I think he might like to see you too." Tifa said with a smile, but I could see her thinking about something. I imagine she was remembering his reaction to seeing me alive. "But you need to take it easy so leave all of to us ok." Tifa said waiving a finger at me like I was a kid.

We were there quickly and first thing we did was visit Usher. He was glad to see me, and gave me a worried smile that said he was not happy to see me in that condition. He did ask where everyone else was having remembered there being a lot more of us. Once we explained it he nodded saying he understood, but he also looked sad. "I see, so you're finally going to face him then."

"Yes. We have to in order to save the world." Cloud said.

"I know you're right, but I can't help feeling like its wrong. I remember him back then. He was happy as long as you were there with him. It was nice seeing him smile. And you too." He said smiling at me.

"Listen, we're here for more than just a visit. We need to bury someone." I told him looking down.

"Who?!" He said looking worried. I felt his hand on my shoulder as well.

"They're…not from our group." I replied almost unsure of how to describe them.

"They were hostages that an enemy killed in hopes that we would cave and give them Lilia. Obviously it didn't work out in their favor, but we weren't able to save them." Cloud explained wishing that we had been able to.

"I see, then I'll give you a hand." He said quickly opening a closet and getting out a few shovels.

It was hard to see their bodies after what happened to them. I was very silent remembering everything I could about them in an attempt to keep their memories alive. _Dad…Sarah. I'm sorry._ I thought letting a few tears flow as Cloud and Usher dug the graves. The townspeople that passed by stopped to see what we were doing. A few kept going, but some helped out and even stayed.

"Who were they, do you know." Usher finally asked me. The graves were dug and someone had brought a few stones to use and were ready to write their names on them. Suddenly there were a lot of people there. Zack's family were there as well standing by me.

"Dennis Arne…he was…the one who raised me when I was little, after my father died." I told them almost unable to look away from his body. "She was a friend. Sarah. It's been so long I can't remember her last name anymore." I said feeling bad for having forgotten it.

"That'll be enough. You'll know, and that's all that counts." Usher said trying to comfort me.

Once everything was ready we lowered them into the graves and covered them. Everyone was looking at me and waiting. Tifa leaned over and told me I should say something, but I was at a loss for words. I stood there silently for a minute or two before saying anything.

"Both of them were good people when I knew them. He was a good father to three children that weren't even his without ever saying a word or even a complaint. He loved us all regardless of that fact. I knew her only a short time, but we were fast friends. I only knew her for a few weeks though. I'm just sorry this happened and that their loved ones aren't here." I said shivering slightly as I leaned against Tifa for support.

There were a few moments of silence before everyone slowly started to leave. Something caught all of our attention. Someone was laughing. Everyone looked around trying to find the source, but no one we could see was laughing. "That's so sweet. Very touching." A familiar voice said.

"It can't be!" Cloud said getting his sword out. "Where are you!"

Tifa and Usher were telling everyone to run home and lock the doors. He was concerned about his children. He sent them home with a friend not wanting to leave them alone. "Who is it?" He asked us.

"Glaed." Cloud told him. "I don't know how she survived, but it sounds like her."

"Thought that you were rid of me didn't you. It took some time, but I'm all fixed up." She said appearing before us. "Well…mostly anyway." She said laughing. "I finally figured out how to get out of there. I guess he forgot to kill me…or maybe he couldn't. Doesn't matter anyway. If I'm going to die it'll be on my terms!" She said.

All of us were staring at her. She was not fully healed, but she was still willing to fight us even in that condition. She was still in the process of rebuilding parts of herself. About half of her body was fine, but the other half was another story. Scattered about her body were places where only bone was, or where muscle had started to grow back, but it was very unfinished. We could see the look in her eyes. She was not going to give up until she was dead.

I heard Cloud cursing. Because of my request we were low on supplies. Most of what we did have was all on the airship. I was worried about Usher being there, but I already knew that he was not going to leave us there to fight her. "Look, I dunno who you are, but there's no way you're going to hurt anyone I know!" Usher said pulling out a sword. I had not even noticed it. It almost blended in with his clothes. _Did he always have that?_ I was wondering.

Cloud and Tifa both got in front of me and Usher was helping me stand, but he was also ready to fight. I was feeling weak from what happened. I was not really in any condition to fight. Glaed looked over at us and cocked her head to one side beckoning us to come at her. As she did her jaw jerked and so did the remaining skin on her face. It made a horrible sound when she did it making everyone cringe slightly.

She was still laughing and Cloud was the first one to go after her. He was determined to finish her now. Tifa stood between them and us knocking her back if she tried to get past her. In her condition her mobility was nowhere near the same as before. She seemed to struggle just to move her limbs the way she wanted. These actions gave Cloud the advantage and the moving and jerking caused her foot to break.

Everyone heard it and saw that it was now stuck bent to the side in a disgusting manner. "There's no way you're going to win!" Cloud said. She was so determined that she was putting up a decent fight.

"I know that." She said sounding angry. "I can already feel it. I'll be dead soon." She told us as we watched a patch of skin fall to the ground and starts to disintegrate. "That's why I'm going to keep fighting until I can't fight anymore." As she spoke we could see the remaining parts of her starting to disintegrate. Slowly she was losing her form. She was shaking slightly and from the looks of it grinding her teeth in an attempt to ignore the pain she felt. "It'll be even better…if I kill one of you in the process!" She said lunging at him.

Cloud defended himself, but they were interrupted suddenly by large spikes of shadow that flared up between them. Both of them cursed as they jumped away. Cloud and Tifa looked at me surprised. I was just as surprised as they were. My shadow stood there glaring at Glaed. She looked almost angry with her. She lengthened her fingers and made them razor sharp before going for her. Glaed was determined not to become minced meat again and dodged, but her leg broke in the process.

"Dammit!" She shouted as she fell to the ground. My shadow was on her the next second and an evil smile was plastered on her face. "I guess escaping you made you angry huh." She said laughing slightly. "I guess we're not that different." She said.

This didn't really get a reaction from my shadow. The rest of us just stood there watching wondering what was about to happen next. Glaed lay there looking up at her not even moving. She was still shaking slightly. My shadow stood there over her for a moment plunging her sharp claws into her a few times dislodging a few organs in the process. Tifa cringed the whole time and I noticed her and Cloud had backed away slightly.

Usher looked on gaping at the scene. I was unsure what I should do. I could not seem to muster up any power to do anything about my shadow. She was completely acting on her own. I was inclined to let her just rip at her until it was all over anyway because of the things she had done. Here she was right after we buried the ones she killed. I felt a sense of satisfaction from watching her do that to her.

Glaed was hardly able to fight back and the frustration showed on her face. Eventually, Glaed was able to sit up and defiantly stared down her attacker. "No matter what you do to me now…I'm dying my way, NOT HIS!" She shouted at us. The action dislocated her jaw. She struggled and tried to stand, but could not seem to do it. The effort broke an arm and my shadow mercilessly attached her breaking more bones until standing was no longer an option. She was almost like before, but it seemed like that was not the idea behind what she was doing to her.

I also noticed the look on my shadows face was not that of enjoyment. The smile that she had before had changed into a frown. She was disappointed, but she was not going to stop. Before long Glaed's body was in pieces and now began to turn to dust and it blew up in the wind.

We stood there for a moment or two in silence. "Is that the kind of people you've been fighting against all this time?" Usher asked. I didn't move, but I was feeling a bit week and stumbled losing my balance. Tifa caught me and moved me towards Usher's house.

"I don't know how many more of them are left, but we've stopped quite a few of them." Cloud said in answer.

"I see. So you've been fighting two different things all this time." He said looking at me. "It's a wonder you've survived this long." We went inside and I rested for a bit as we all talked. Usher went to get his children and sent them to bed. It was getting late and even we wanted to get back to the airship.

Saying a farewell to him was kind of strange. I felt like I would not be seeing him for a long time. It was an odd feeling, but I was feeling anxious about the upcoming fight. And there was still _him. _Scythe was still out there and I had no idea what he might be planning. It was definitely on my mind. We planned out the "mission" as we were considering it while we waited for the others to come back. Not everyone was gone as long as they could have been having decided quickly or didn't have to travel as far. Slowly the ship filled back up with our friends and the silence dissipated.

Next we would enter the crater where Sephiroth was waiting for us. I was not really looking forward to it, but I knew it had to happen.

**Author:** As the end of this chapter states, the Crater & Sephiroth await; and so does Scythe.

I meant to be done with this chapter months ago, but I got a kidney stone and had surgery so I was in excruciating pain for a while. So small, but big pain in the ass. Sigh, life sure likes to get in the way don't it?


End file.
